It was our great honor to serve as appellate counsel and work alongside our friends at Holland & Knight to defend a truly life-altering, transformational, and ultra-luxury waterfront residential development by the legendary development team at the Continuum Company. We say “life altering” because this case directly affected the housing needs of the residents of the Mariner’s Bay Condominium Association (the “Association”). The Association – like so many – faced extraordinarily expensive deferred maintenance obligations necessary to complete the forty (40) year recertification and fund the structural integrity reserves now required by the Florida Statutes. These financial obligations were economically non-viable given the vintage of the units. As a result, the Association agreed to terminate the condominium and sell it to an entity controlled by the Continuum Company who proposed to redevelop this jewel of waterfront property located within the City of North Miami. One member of the Association was quoted as follows, “We don’t have the money, we cannot survive as a building, and we’ve been given a lifeline.”
The transaction, however, required zoning approval from the City of North Miami. The land use team at Holland & Knight was able to secure the approvals, but two local residents filed suits to overturn the zoning approvals. We arrived by parachute – as is frequently the case – landing in this dispute after all the land use entitlements were in place. We instantly moved the appellate court to expedite the proceedings, and we filed our appellate brief within four (4) business days of receipt of the appellate record. The Court granted our request for expedited relief, scheduled oral arguments on an expedited basis, and ruled in our favor in less than twenty-four (24) hours from oral argument.
The case is an important harbinger of the decisions faced by so many older condominium associations who are upside down with respect to the value of the units and the extreme costs required to meet the reserve funding obligations now imposed by Florida law.
