At the Hyatt
Regency hotel in Coral Gables last Sunday, several owners were hotly
anticipating the results of court-ordered condominium elections to
reinstate a board of directors, all relieved that they could regain
control over their condemned building, an 18-story complex originally
developed in 1967 as the Hilton Plaza.
Back in
April, Judge Marc Schumacher had put a receiver from the accounting firm
Kaufman Rossin & Company in charge of the building’s operation –
Robert Stone. He has been actively seeking lenders and a $25 million loan
to start construction on the building and get unit owners back into their
homes.
But for more
than eight months, there has been basically no work done on the building
and residents have been left in limbo with no surefire time frame as to
when they could go back to their seaside condos. Additionally, many of
them are quite peeved at the $30,000-per-head salary that Stone has been
collecting every month, despite the fact there hasn’t been much progress
at all. There still isn’t a lender in place so no work can begin.
Murmurs is
especially bothered by this situation because, due to the circumstances,
the delightful Russian Turkish Baths, tucked within a magical grotto down
below in the Castle Beach building, have had to close as well: Oh those
soothing, steamy sessions in the eucalyptus-scented steam room sure hit
the spot after sordid work hours. How we miss them.
But just
Monday Judge Schumacher ratified the election results, approving new board
members Juan C. Gonzalez, Elizabeth L. Izquierdo, Angel F. Leal Jr.,
Sergio Purrinos and Margarita Suarez-Rivas. He returned daily operating
control to the newly seated board and let Stone remain as a financial
receiver.
The previous
board of directors was sued by unit owners who charged that its members
allocated maintenance fees only to “hotel” units owned by board
members Leopoldo Gonzalez, Emilio Berkowitz and Horacio Mecozzia. The
three own 150 of the 540 Castle Beach units, which were used as hotel
rooms.
“The new
board will need to deal with the building restoration and projected
reopening issues,” said Stone, adding that there’s a term sheet – a
general outline of a proposed transaction – available and subject to a
formal loan agreement. Nothing’s binding until the agreement is signed
and court-approved.
The new
board members could not be reached by deadline to discuss plans to get the
building reopened.
Joseph
Ganguzza, the attorney repping the five new board members and their
supporters, announced that the new board should be meeting soon with
engineers and will figure how much the whole thing’s going to cost.
Ganguzza is also quite optimistic, expecting the building to reopen after
six weeks. Lenders have been really reluctant to provide financing for the
renovation project, so they’re going to get the initial funding from a
special assessment.