This company runs the Mayfair Condo Hotel in Coconut Grove, Miami as well. The 50 consumer owners had their condo dues increased to $1800+ a month last year by Ceebraid. That’s roughly $4.00+ a sq ft for condo dues. Many consumers have defaulted on their mortgages, and are losing their properties rather than pay these dues. This is one of the problems with condo hotels when the developer never gives up control of the association, dues increases do not require home owner input. $1800+ monthly dues may be the result.
The article below is about the same developer. Does he have a pattern of using the condo rules against consumers? You decide.
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From Florida Business Journal this week:
One of South Florida’s best-known fractured condo projects is the target of a lawsuit by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Last week, McCollum filed suit against the developers of Eden Condominium: Ceebraid-Signal Corp. and its subsidiary Boca East LLC, and principals Richard, Leslie, Adam and Jason Schlesinger.
The four-building apartment conversion project was conceived in 2002 as a 252-unit rental community to be converted into a 204-unit upscale condominium across from Boca Raton City Hall. According to the lawsuit, only 27 units closed and buyers have been forced to cope with a perpetual, unfinished construction zone for years.
“One unit owner as been quoted by the media that ‘they feel like hostages’ and that ‘we’ve been trapped for years,’” the lawsuit reads.
McCollum is asking for a judge to declare the project’s contract illegal and a $10,000 civil penalty for every practice found in violation of the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Among other violations, the suit alleges “the true developer, Ceebraid-Signal Corp., was not publicly disclosed to prospective purchasers in the prospectus.”
Mark Bideau, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig who represents Ceebraid-Signal, said the company had gone overboard to refund deposits for those buyers who had not closed and it planned to buy out the remaining owners.
He said he thinks the state’s complaint is flawed and references old cases that have been overturned or are not relevant.
“We were surprised to get this because we spoke to them and we think their complaint is legally and factually wrong,” Bideau said.
He said the description of the developer was adequate, according to state law.
In fact, Bideau accused the state of making the developer’s task much more difficult by filing the suit, which he said could pose challenges to securing new financing. He said the company is seeking new financing to convert the project back to rentals.
In a 2006 Business Journal interview, Adam Schlesinger said the project was slowed by the sickness of a partner, safety violations from the city, increased costs, a change in contractors, bank approval for continued draws and permit extensions.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Boca East sued the city over permit extensions last week.
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