More than 16 years after buying a five-story commercial space at the bayfront Miami condo Blue, the Atlanta-based owner is one step closer to gaining access to basic utilities that would make it operational — including central air conditioning, a must in South Florida.
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Blue on the Bay at 601 Northeast 36th Street in Miami. |
“They haven’t been
able to use the property since 2006 because they haven’t had
those basic utilities,” said Jose Ferrer, Blue Grouper
Ventures’ attorney. Ferrer, a lawyer with Miami-based Mark
Migdal & Hayden, said his client could sell the units or
rent out the spaces.
The Goddard entity paid about $2.3 million for the two
commercial units totaling 12,000 square feet in late 2006.
Miami-based Hyperion Development completed the 35-story,
roughly 330-unit tower a year earlier. The curved building,
designed by Arquitectonica, sits at the entrance to I-195.
In its suit, Blue Grouper Ventures also accused Blue’s condo
association of trespassing by using the commercial units’
parking spaces and storage units; neglecting maintenance
that resulted in chronic leaking; and of refusing to allow
the condo owner use of the common spaces, among other
things. The complaint, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in
2021, alleged that the association was renting out Blue
Grouper Ventures’ parking spaces and storage.
The association’s attorney, Cody German, said the verdict
was “a tiny fraction” of the nearly $6 million in damages
that Blue Grouper Ventures sought. He declined to comment
regarding how the association will pay the damages. The
nearly $6 million refers to about $4.8 million in lost
rental profits and $1 million in remediation costs,
according to a court filing.
German, a partner with Miami-based Cole, Scott & Kissane,
said the verdict was “remarkably better than any prior
options presented to Blue Condominium,” and that Blue
Grouper won “on only one of its many claims.”
The jury found that the association breached the condo
declaration, causing about $1 million in damages, and that
the association trespassed on Blue Grouper’s property by
using its parking spaces and storage without the owner’s
consent. The jury also found that the association was not
unjustly enriched by Blue Grouper paying its share of the
common expenses.
In the 2021 complaint, Blue Grouper also alleged that the
association refused to provide full access to the
association’s files, including a structural engineer’s
report that allegedly had information about a building
defect regarding the building’s post-tension system.
Causeway Towers, the Hyperion entity that developed the
tower, was involved in a handful of lawsuits from 2004 to
2007, including one against Arquitectonica, but the
complaints are not available online.