Florida condo owners are being slapped with staggering six-figure assessments after a building repair project initially priced at $1.6 million ballooned into a $36 million overhaul.

 

Residents at The Galleon, an oceanfront condominium on Fort Lauderdale’s Galt Ocean Mile, are now being assessed between $135,000 and $320,000 per unit for a concrete restoration project that has already dragged on for five years, according to CBS News Miami. The sprawling project has transformed parts of the beachfront property into a construction zone, with work stretching across multiple floors and the building’s pool and patio area stripped down to a concrete platform. But even after years of work — and tens of millions of dollars in mounting costs — some homeowners say problems remain. Sergio Cella, a pilot and mechanical engineer who has lived at The Galleon for 30 years, told CBS Miami that workers have tried three separate times to repair cracking on his 14th-floor balcony. “The quality is not there,” Cella told the outlet, describing the situation as “despicable.”

The Galleon’s repair project has ballooned from $1.6 million to $36 million.

The contractor, Hartzell Construction, disputes the suggestion that it is responsible for the enormous increase in the project’s price.

The company said its original agreement covered a much more limited amount of structural restoration. As crews proceeded, the condo association expanded the scope through numerous change orders and additional contracts approved by the association.

The result has been a dramatic escalation from what residents originally expected to pay.

What began as an estimated $1.6 million job has now swelled to roughly $36 million — more than 22 times the initial figure.

And that cost is being passed along to homeowners.

Depending on the size of their units, residents are facing special assessments ranging from roughly $135,000 to more than $320,000, turning what began as a building-maintenance project into a potentially life-altering financial burden for some owners.

Edward Rumin, an attorney and former Galleon board member, says the project “snowballed.”

The escalating construction bill has also been accompanied by turmoil inside the condo association, including recalls, lawsuits and board resignations.

Edward Rumin, an attorney and former member of The Galleon’s board, said residents initially went along with the mounting assessments despite their concerns.

“We didn’t like the numbers, but we went along with them,” Rumin told CBS.

But eventually, he said, the project “got out of control and snowballed.”

Rumin said he does not believe residents will ultimately recover the money they have poured into the project.

The controversy has even reached the top of the condo board.

When CBS Miami approached the association’s then-president about residents’ complaints, he dismissed the disgruntled owners as people who “can’t afford to live on the ocean,” before ending the call.

But the president has since sold his own unit and resigned from the board, according to CBS — leaving the remaining homeowners to contend with the massive assessments and ongoing construction.

The battle at The Galleon comes amid a much broader reckoning for Florida condo owners following the June 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, which killed 98 people.

The catastrophe led Florida lawmakers to tighten inspection and reserve requirements for older condominium buildings, forcing associations across the state to take a harder look at aging structures and the money they have available to repair them.

For some condo owners, that has meant sharply higher association costs and special assessments as buildings confront expensive repairs that can no longer be postponed.

At The Galleon, however, residents are questioning not merely the need for repairs but how the price tag grew so dramatically — and whether five years of work has delivered what they paid for.