4 September 18-24, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ‘HAVING MULTIPLE ORGASMS’ The Nikki Beach texts Miami Beach doesn’t want you to see. BY ALEX DELUCA AND NAOMI FEINSTEIN N ew Times has ob- tained a tranche of text-message tran- scripts that were en- tered as exhibits in a lawsuit that has been ping-ponging its way through the courts since May of 2023. The suit was filed by the owners of the Nikki Beach dayclub against the City of Miami Beach and Boucher Brothers, a local con- cessionaire, shortly after Miami Beach officials unveiled plans to oust Nikki Beach from its longtime South Beach home — a move that blindsided the Penrod family, who owned the popular dayclub. The messages arrived via an unsolicited email from a source who asked not to be iden- tified in this story. Some show then-Miami Beach Commis- sioner Ricky Arriola texting back and forth with one of the Bouchers about securing beach chair rentals for his wife and son. Others show other Miami Beach city officials appearing to rejoice at news reports that Boucher Brothers had managed to ace out Nikki Beach’s bid to extend its lease with the city, an agreement that had endured via renewals since 1997. That’s where the “multiple orgasms” men- tioned in the headline above this story come in. But as with many memorable orgasms, these will require a bit of foreplay (as it were). Cue the Background Music Nikki Beach was founded in 1997 by the late South Florida impresario extraordinaire Jack Penrod — its name is a tribute to Penrod’s daughter, who died in a car accident when she was 18. By 2023 the dayclub was a South Beach staple and the company a global brand with Nikki Beach outposts in St. Tropez, Marbella, and Dubai, to name a few. (Penrod died earlier this year at age 85; his widow, Lu- cia Penrod, and other family members con- tinue to operate the business.) In April of that year, then-City Commis- sioner Ricky Arriola proposed bringing in a different beach concession company, Boucher Brothers, to take over the city- owned property at 1 Ocean Dr. after Nikki Beach’s lease expires in May 2026. Boucher Brothers — its name reflects its owners, brothers James, Michael, Perry, and Steve Boucher — provides concessions like umbrellas, cabanas, lounge chairs, and day- beds in partnership with more than 131 high- end hotels and resorts on shorelines across Florida, California, and Virginia. As the Penrods were about to learn, Miami Beach city officials had been quietly cozying up to Boucher Brothers for years. In May of 2023, the Penrods sued the city for cutting an “egregious backroom deal” for a potential no-bid agreement with the Bouchers. A few months later, the city rejected Nikki Beach’s bid to stay, claiming the club had missed a deadline to file paperwork through an online portal. At the same time, officials approved Boucher Brothers’ $26 million ren- ovation proposal, which included a partner- ship with Major Food Group, the New York City-based restaurant company behind Car- bone and several other popular Miami-area restaurants. In late summer of 2023, the Miami Herald detailed what the paper described as “cozy ties between city and Boucher, Car- bone,” noting that a law partner of for- mer Mayor Dan Gelber texted Car- bone co-owner Jeff Zalaznick to secure a prime reservation for his daughter’s birthday. Herald re- porter Aaron Lei- bowitz pointed to multiple instances of “the Penrods’ claim that they are victims of a sham process to determine the future of the city- owned property at 1 Ocean Drive,” including city officials getting coveted dinner reserva- tions at Carbone Las Vegas, free tickets to a Carbone Beach Formula 1 racing event, and “Gelber calling a private meeting with Boucher and city officials ahead of a key vote.” Those revelations, Leibowitz wrote, emerged in the discovery phase of the Pen- rods’ suit against Boucher Brothers and the City of Miami Beach. Nary a mention, however, of an orgasm, much less multiple ones. Anticlimax? No, Just Some Formalities! Before we get to the substance of the text messages, we feel obliged to note that in the course of sorting through them and verifying their authenticity, New Times contacted Mi- ami Beach officials and various attorneys rep- resenting the city, Boucher Brothers, and Nikki Beach in the lawsuit. In particular, we were curious as to why some of the documents were marked “Confi- dential” in the lower left corner. Soon after a New Times reporter mentioned that detail to attorney Maria Fehretdinov, we received an email from Fehretdinov with a subject line that read “Demand to Return Materials Des- ignated ‘Confidential.’” “We understand you received (not from our firm, Stearns Weaver, nor from our client, Nikki Beach) documents that the City of Miami Beach marked ‘Confidential,’” Fehretdinov wrote. “Those documents are subject to a Confidentiality Order and should not have been disclosed to you or your publication. “Accordingly, we ask that you immedi- ately return to us all documents marked ‘Confidential,’ if they were provided in hard copy, and destroy any and all copies, includ- ing digital copies, of such documents in your possession.” After consulting with our own attorneys (and refamiliarizing ourselves with the mel- lifluous phrase, “Truthful information, law- fully obtained,”) we advised Fehretdinov that we were standing pat. We also asked if she or her firm wished to comment for this story. The response: “Other than as [previously] stated, counsel for Nikki Beach, Maria Feh- retdinov and Jason Koslowe of Stearns Weaver, decline to comment about the pend- ing litigation.” ‘Multiple Orgasms’ and Other Innuendos On September 2, 2023 — a day after city offi- cials rejected Nikki Beach’s bid — former city attorney and interim city manager Raul Agu- ila dropped a link to a Herald story headlined, “City rejects Nikki Beach bid to remain in South Beach due to missed proposal dead- line” in a group chat with chief deputy city at- torney Nicholas Kallergis and current city attorney Ricardo Dopico. Text messages are notoriously difficult to parse for tone, but the mood around the virtual water cooler after Nikki Beach had been re- moved from the playing field seemed...giddy. Aguila wrote alongside the link: “How STUPID are they???” “I’d hate to be the dumbass who waited until [2:59 p.m.] to submit. Imagine there’s a malpractice claim there,” Dopico responded. “I’m having multiple orgasms just think- ing about it. You guys have all the fun!!!!!!,” Aguila replied to Dopico. Kallergis chimed in: “Omg for sure that kid is fired.” “What a fitting denouement for the Pen- rod’s saga!” Aguila added. A Miami Beach spokesperson did not re- spond to New Times’ request for comment on Tuesday, nor did Aguila or Dopico. In August of this year, the Penrods filed a motion for partial summary judgment in the case, arguing that the deal violated the city’s rules on competitive bidding. “Here, the city’s contract with Boucher not only materially deviates from the New Times has obtained text messages in which Miami Beach officials mock Nikki Beach after rejecting its bid to extend its concession lease in South Pointe. Nikki Beach photo | METRO | THE MESSAGES ARRIVED VIA AN UNSOLICITED EMAIL FROM A SOURCE WHO ASKED NOT TO BE IDENTIFIED IN THIS STORY. >> p5
