West Palm Beach condominium owners are facing litigation from two real estate heavyweights as the developers vie for control of a 40-year-old waterfront complex.

At least four owners or former owners of individual units at the Harbor Towers & Marina on South Flagler Drive have been sued for signing sales contracts with either Related Ross, West Palm Beach’s leading builder, or Miami-based Fort Partners, which is known for developing Four Seasons Residences.

The two firms began buying Harbor Towers condo units for up to five times their total market value this year after Fort Partners purchased two adjacent apartment buildings and sought to expand its Flagler Drive footprint by purchasing enough units at Harbor Towers to terminate the condominium.

Condo buyouts have become more common following skyrocketing insurance costs and pricey repairs required after the 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside.

They can be a boon to people on fixed incomes who can't afford the increases and to developers who use them to take control of existing complexes for renovation or demolition to make way for new construction.

How Harbor Towers became focus of competitive bidding, lawsuits

But the competition for the two-tower complex at 3901 S. Flagler Drive has escalated to allegations of illegal manipulation of condo rules, lawsuits against former association members, infighting among residents and now the litigation against individual unit owners who until this year may have been naïve to the cutthroat world of billion-dollar development.

“There is a lot of money at stake,” said Alan Gould, whose 94-year-old mother has lived in a ground floor unit at Harbor Towers for 10 years. “Everyone has their side of the story.”

Much of the legal wrangling stems from an April change to condo association documents that gives the association board the right of first refusal on all sale contracts presented by potential buyers. That means if the association matches the contract, it can block the potential buyer and purchase the unit itself.

Employees of Fort Partners run the Harbor Towers & Marina Condominium Association as a three-member board after the previous board resigned. The April change gives them the ability to block Related Ross from buying units.

But Related Ross says in a lawsuit against Fort that the April change was not legal and accused Fort of undertaking a “calculated hostile takeover” of Harbor Towers.

Fort Partners, in a counter lawsuit, says Related has "harassed" Harbor Towers owners with a sole motivation to prevent Fort Partners from buying out the condominium.

Gould said he felt Fort Partners tried to bully him into selling his mother’s unit. The price was generous at $1.5 million, but Gould didn’t want to move his mother, and Related Ross offered the same money with other perks, including a five-year delay on closing.

“I said I’m not going to be intimidated so I signed the agreement with Related,” said Gould, who co-owns the popular vegan restaurant Darbster in West Palm Beach with his wife. “Related said it wasn’t planning on doing anything with the building for five years anyway, and what was important to me was having the time for my mom.”

The Harbor Towers association sued Gould in late June for declaratory relief and breach of contract.

The association is also suing two other owners, 3901 Holdings, LLC, which sold its unit to Related Ross for $2.4 million (the total market value was $440,000), and Roger Everingham, who has a contract with Related Ross and has refused to sell to the association, according to legal documents.

Related Ross, for its part, sued 3901 Holdings, LLC, and then dismissed the case on June 20, two days after it bought 3901's unit for $2.4 million. It has an active suit against owner Michael Mackintosh, who sold his unit to the association for $1.75 million.

“We are closing with people on units, and (Related Ross) is doing things from our perspective that are not legal,” said Fort Partners attorney Glen Waldman. “You can’t just ignore the right of first refusal.”

Related Ross did not respond to a request for comment for this story but said in a statement earlier this year that it is "committed to transparency and fairness and remains confident that the legal process will bring clarity and justice to this matter."

Fort Partners owns about 20 units in the building through its limited liability corporation, WPB Harbor Tower Acquisitions, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser.

Related Ross, which is buying units through a similarly named LLC called Harbor Towers Acquisitions, owns five units and has told owners it is in no rush to take over the 61-unit complex.

It’s unknown how many contracts have been signed but not closed yet with each company.

Waldman has depositions scheduled for the last week of August 2025 with Palm Beach billionaire Stephen Ross, who leads Related Ross, and David Felton, who is listed as manager of STI Holdings, LLC. STI Holdings is listed in Florida Department of State records as the registered agent of 3901 Holdings, LLC.

Neither David Felton or his attorney responded to requests for an interview for this story.
Condo buyouts can be welcomed news, until gloves come off

Waldman said the battle over Harbor Towers is unusually tumultuous. At one point, the association temporarily hired security guards to stop people serving lawsuit summonses against former board members from gaining entry to the buildings.

And it extends to the legal cases.

The suit against 3901 Holdings, for example, says 3901 principal David Felton was the “primary resident ringleader” in the attempt by Related Ross to block Fort Partners from buying out the condominium.

Waldman called the litigation Related Ross filed against 3901 before dismissing the case a “wink, wink” lawsuit.

“It was a game. It was all play,” Waldman said. “This is new to me, and I’ve done a lot of these.”

But Related Ross, which is also named in the 3901 lawsuit under its LLC, says in legal documents that the condo association didn’t match the terms offered in its sales contract to 3901, making the right of first refusal a non-issue.

Jaime Sturgis, founder of Fort Lauderdale-based Native Realty, and who is not involved in Harbor Towers, said he frequently gets calls from condominium boards asking if he knows of a developer willing to buy them out.

The requests are mostly a product of owners seeking an escape from the higher insurance and Surfside mandates.

“Having real developers that are willing and capable of paying or overpaying to take out some of these condos is a rarity and welcome news for a lot of people,” Sturgis said. “But sometimes the gloves come off. The condo buyouts are really challenging.”

Fort Partners may be especially aggressive because it says in legal filings that Related Ross already blocked it from buying out the 44-year-old Southbridge Condominium, which is just south of the two apartment buildings it bought on Flagler Drive in November for $20 million.

According to a countersuit by Fort, Related Ross suggested joining forces in the Southbridge acquisition, but instead began buying units on its own with the goal of blocking Fort.

Related Ross already has multiple commercial and residential projects on and around Flagler Drive.

The luxury Shorecrest and South Flagler House condominiums are planned for 1901 N. Flagler Drive and 1355 S. Flagler Drive, respectively. Its One Flagler office tower opened this year at 180 Lakeview Ave. It owns the Esperante Corporate Center at 222 Lakeview Ave. And it signed a $100 million lease with Family Church at 1101 S. Flagler Drive for two high-rise condos on the church’s parking lot.

The Phillips Point office complex is also owned by Related Ross at 777 S. Flagler Drive and is undergoing a renovation that will turn its signature pink exterior to white limestone.

Waldman is hoping to have a ruling on what he calls the “key” issue of the April change in condo rules by the end of October, which he believes should settle most of the other concerns and allow Fort to move forward with termination.

“We are very confident that what was done is appropriate,” Waldman said.