Article
Courtesy of The Miami Herald By TANIA
VALDEMORO AND EMILY VEITIA
Published June 24, 2007
Nearly two years after Hurricane Wilma tore out the
windows at the GrandView Palace Condominium, residents last weekend staged
a protest over what they say are unrepaired damages.
On June 16, 15 residents belonging to the GrandView
Palace Homeowners Group gathered at the corner of Treasure Drive and the
79th Street Causeway, holding up signs with messages that included
''Victims of developer abuse'' and ``Honk if you hate slumlords.''
According to resident Todd Louis, the rally was
meant to point out that state officials, who regulate condominiums, have
not forced Charles C. Edwards and his son, James Edwards -- whose
family-run development company owns about 90 units and controls the condo
association board -- to fix anything.
''Either they can't or they won't intercede in
what's going on,'' Louis said.
According to Sophie Lima, who owns three units in
the 532-unit, 25-story building, water is still coming in through windows
that were fixed after the storm, and there are still cracks underneath the
second-floor pool. An electrician shut down the pool this week after he
found water had corroded the electrical wiring on the pool decks, she
said. Charles Edwards disagrees with the residents' claims.
''All hurricane damage, which cost several million
dollars, [has] been repaired,'' he said.
The Edwards company purchased the building, at 7601
E. Treasure Dr., in the early 1990s and converted it from an apartment to
condominium building in 2003.
The GrandView Palace Homeowners Group has been
fighting with Edwards over the past few years. It says he has neglected to
make necessary upgrades to the building before Hurricane Wilma. It also
resents having to pay association fees to repair those problems.
The group sued Edwards in March to get back the
money it has paid in maintenance fees since 2003. It says the developer
should have paid out of his own pocket for the work.
Edwards said his attorneys advised him not to
comment about the lawsuit.
He did say, however, that before the hurricane, the
building's major problem has been cracks in the walls, which he plans to
fix.
But residents point to other examples of what they
call Edwards' pre-hurricane neglect: missing fire alarms in condo units
and and four building elevators that continue to malfunction.
In November 2005, a month after Hurricane Wilma
struck, North Bay Village Building Chief Paul Gioia took over the
condominium, saying Edwards had refused to perform a long list of repairs
before the storm.
Edwards sued to block the takeover, but Miami-Dade
Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman later ordered a special master,
Kenneth Marlin, to oversee the repairs.
In a status hearing last month, Friedman gave
Edwards 45 days to repair all the hurricane damage and address all the
building violations Gioia cited two years ago.
Edwards and his attorneys must report to Friedman
about the status of the repairs in a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
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