A condominium on Biscayne Bay in Miami's Edgewater neighborhood will be terminated and vacated after a judge ruled in favor of a developer.
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The 55-story Edition Residences Miami Edgewater. |
While Rebull didn’t
dismiss the lawsuit, he denied the unit owners' motion for a
temporary injunction to prevent them from being evicted and
the condo from being terminated.
Miami-based attorney Glen Waldman, who represents the condo
owners, said he’d appeal the ruling.
“We're glad the judge confirmed what we already knew: TRD
Biscayne LLC is the sole owner of the building following the
successful termination of the condominium in accordance with
Florida law,” the developer stated.
On Aug. 15, TRD Biscayne sent the remaining Biscayne 21 unit
owners a letter asking them to leave by Aug. 31 because it
would no longer be “lawful, safe, or practical for us to
continue operating the building.” The building is in need of
significant deferred maintenance and the HVAC system has
been malfunctioning. They brought portable chillers and
generators, but that costs more than $100,000 a month and
consumes more than 250 gallons of diesel fuel daily. The
city warned the building owner it would be fined for a code
violation because the chillers and generators make too much
noise.
TRD Biscayne said it would shut down the chillers and
generators, then ask FPL to cut power in common areas, and
asked the residents to leave. The developer offered to pay
for the remaining residents to stay in a nearby hotel
through Dec. 15.
Attorney Josh Migdal, of Mark Migdal & Hayden, which isn’t
involved in the case, said the holdout unit owners will
receive the appraised value of their units, which is not
based on what their former neighbors received when the
developer bought them out.
“This will counter a common conception that, if you hold
out, you will get a premium to what your neighbors who
decided to sell received,” Migdal said.
Rebull's ruling shows that courts will be reluctant to allow
an older condo that needs many expensive repairs to stave
off a termination once a developer has purchased enough
units to secure a termination vote, he said.
“The ruling is probably the first of many in this space,”
Migdal said. “The law will be developed as it goes on
appeal.”
Developers are looking to buy out and terminate many older
condos in South Florida because there are few available
development sites along the water.