Article Courtesy of The Real Deal
By Keith Larsen
Published June 27, 2018
A condominium association in Brickell is suing its shared services provider,
Mast Capital, alleging the developer unexpectedly and excessively raised the
amount the condo owners had to contribute.
The Mayfield Condominium Association also claimed Mast
Capital — which owns the hotel portion of the building — overcharged for
some of these expenses, which include maintenance for some of the shared
facilities such as security, mail delivery, accounting, admin expenses. The
civil suit was filed last month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Mast Capital owns the Conrad Hotel, which is the hotel portion of the
36-story building, called Espirito Santo Plaza at 1395 Brickell Ave. The
property, also called Brickell Arch, has 103 luxury condos, along with
offices and a retail component. The condo is also called Blue Arch.
According to the suit, Mast Capital also overcharged the condo association
for taxes when none had been levied by the tax authority, and double-billed
for the same security person.
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Mast Capital CEO Camilo Miguel and the Conrad Hotel
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Mayfield Condo Association is now requesting to see Mast Capital’s financial
records.
Mast Capital is responsible for providing the members of the condo owners
access and use of some components of the hotel, according to the suit.
In turn, the association is responsible for paying 10 percent of these
facilities costs. Mast is also responsible for maintaining physical
corridors within the condo component of the property, which the condo
association is responsible for paying for, the complaint alleges.
The condo owners allege that the proposed 2018 budget for these total costs
increased significantly to $733,109 this year, from $291,150 in 2017. That
factors to a 150 percent increase.
As a result of these new costs, the condo association “requested to inspect
the books and records of Mast Capital” in order to “attempt to understand
for itself the reason for the inexplicable increases.” It alleges that Mast
Capital has refused all demands by the association to inspect the books.
The association said while it has been unable to review the hotel facilities
records, it has still identified several budget items it alleges it was
overcharged, including billing the association $102,747 for taxes related to
the commercial units when they allege no taxes were levied by tax
authorities.
The condo association says that Mast Capital has breached its agreement.
Mast Capital could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mayfield Condo Association’s attorney Jason Alderman of the Alderman Law
Firm declined to comment citing pending litigation.
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