When Brickell House
opened in 2014, condo owners thought they
were buying into an ultra-modern luxury
tower with panoramic views of Biscayne Bay
and a new state-of-the-art robotic car
elevator that would bring them their cars
within 10 minutes.
Shortly after closing on their units,
however, buyers realized the dream of
hassle-free smart parking wasn’t to be: The
technology flopped, the elevator’s
manufacturer Boomerang Systems filed for
bankruptcy and unit owners had to resort to
parking their cars at a nearby garage.
Almost four years later, the Brickell House
Condominium Association reached a $32
million settlement with the elevator’s
insurer, the Hartford Steam Boiler
Inspection and Insurance Co. The settlement,
which appears to be one of the largest of
its kind, is nearly half the $61 million
policy the association took out to cover the
elevator’s technology.
The confidential settlement was reached in
October and appeared as a small footnote in
a motion filed by executives with Boomerang
Systems in November. Representatives for
Hartford Steam declined to comment.
Still, litigation continues, though the
settlement likely brought some relief for
condo owners at the 374-unit tower at 1300
Brickell Bay Drive who have had to park at a
nearby building’s garage. The association
claims owners have lost an average of
$70,000 in value per unit due to the parking
garage’s malfunctions, according to the
complaint.
Attorneys for the developer, Harvey
Hernandez’s Newgard Development Group, did
not immediately return a request for
comment. Hernandez also did not return a
request for comment, nor did the condo
association.
The association is now seeking to collect
more money from the developer, alleging that
Newgard was negligent and knew that the
Boomerang technology was not working
properly. Attorneys for the developer denied
the allegations in a motion.
The 46-story Brickell House was one of the
first post-recession condo buildings
constructed in Brickell. The developer sold
98 percent of the tower’s 374 units within
three months of opening, property records
show.
Boomerang’s technology was meant to move
cars automatically into parking spots
without drivers inside them. But condo
owners allege that it would take hours to
get their cars, and the system began
malfunctioning as soon as residents moved
in, according to the association’s
complaint. The condo association also
alleged that the system would often stall
and malfunction and would only work properly
under constant staff supervision.
The developer offered to fix the technology
or to replace it, but the association
declined the offers, according to an
affidavit by Hernandez.
While Brickell House’s car elevator
malfunctioned, a number of other
self-driving car elevators in boutique condo
and apartment projects remain in use and
have become a potent marketing tool.
Notably, Dezer Development’s Porsche Design
Tower has a car elevator known as the
“Dezervator” that takes cars to resident’s
individual condo units. And in Boston, a
recently completed luxury condo building
called the Boulevard plans to use an
automatic system to move cars into a
35-space underground garage.