Article
Courtesy of The Miami News Times
By
Michael E. Miller
Published
May 16, 2014
"People should either be caressed or crushed," Niccolò
Machiavelli once wrote. "If you do them minor damage they will get their
revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do."
"I rubbed my eyes to see if I was seeing correctly."
Seth Cohen clearly did not get the civics lesson. In summer 2012, the
then-43-year-old New Yorker went South Florida apartment shopping. After
much deliberation, he dropped $1.5 million on a 4,000-square-foot penthouse
in the hottest spot in town: Two Midtown Miami. Then he put his name on the
ballot for condo association president and won. Cohen had instantly become
prince of the 5-year-old tower, with its white walls, turquoise pool, and
trendy restaurants. Machiavelli would have approved.
But Cohen was neither loved nor feared by his fellow condo owners. And in
April of this year, his crown slipped. After completing an expensive upgrade
of the elevators and pool furniture, he proposed a $2.4 million renovation
of Two Midtown's lobby. Condo owners received notice in the mail, along with
a $6,844.27 bill.
"I rubbed my eyes to see if I was seeing correctly," says Iliat Llamozas. "I
looked at the rendering of the lobby and couldn't figure out how the
association was going to be able to spend that much money on the renovation.
"The design was horrible," she says. "It had chairs that looked like chairs
from The Munsters and bookshelves and two fireplaces. Bookshelves! I mean,
nobody reads books anymore."
Llamozas called her brother, Rafael Borges, who was one of the first people
to buy a place at Two Midtown. Borges had initially told his sister to vote
for Cohen. Now he felt betrayed.
"We never had any problems with anyone ever until this board member joined,"
Borges says. "But these renovations are absurd. This guy is a bully."
Borges had a huge banner printed with the words: "Shame on you, Seth Cohen."
On April 29, he and several other condo owners stood on the curb in front of
Two Midtown to protest the special assessment.
Cohen called the cops, but the protesters had a permit. When one of the
residents pulled out his iPhone to record Cohen, the condo association
president snapped.
"Victim advised [that Cohen] came over to him and slapped his phone from his
hand, causing the phone to hit the ground and break," according to a Miami
Police report accusing Cohen of vandalism.
The protest was a turning point for Two Midtown. Scores of residents wrote
to the board to complain about Cohen and the special assessment. And on May
8 — the day Cohen expected the board to approve his lobby plan — the board
instead axed the idea. Borges is now maneuvering to have Cohen bumped off
the board.
"If he's not recalled, we run the risk of continuous luxury expenditures
that are against everyone else's interests," he says. But Cohen isn't going
quietly.
"We have a legal issue ongoing with these few owners," Cohen tells New
Times. "As a result of their violation of condo rules and regulations, as
well as some illegal activities, we've had to take some legal actions."
Whatever happens with the condo war, it isn't exactly surprising. After all,
Machiavelli predicted as much half a millennium before Midtown existed. "A
man's property and honor," he wrote, "are the points upon which he will be
most keenly sensitive."
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