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Article Courtesy of The Boca Raton
News
By Dale King -- CITY EDITOR
Published June 7, 2009
Developers of Eden – the one-time luxury condo project turned rental community – are down, according to city officials, but are not out, according to the lawyer.
“The developer intends to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the project and to proceed with completion of the renovation as soon as possible,” said attorney Charles Siemon of Siemon & Larson, attorney for Boca East LLC and Ceebraid Signal.
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The project began in 2002 and remains less than halffinished, with two hulking cement building frames standing on West Palmetto Park Road diagonally across from City Hall. One other structure is done, another is nearly finished.
Development Services Director Jorge Camejo recently
notified Siemon that the developers have not provided the information to the city that was required in a September 2007 order that accompanied a two-year extension of the permits. As a result, he said, the developers are in default and the building permits are void.
Siemon said only three issues |
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Photo of Eden development shows unfinished structures. |
remain: “certain documentation related to the modifications to the plans, a contractors agreement and a payment of the plan review fee which the developer calculated in good faith as $108,360.
The attorney said Adam Schlesinger, president of Boca East LLC paid the $108,360, though Camejo said a check for $350,000 was required. The development service director said the $108,360 check “has been determined by the city to be insufficient to cover the outstanding permit fee.”
Exchanging Letters
Following this, said Siemon, the developer and city have exchanged letters “reiterating respective positions.” “What is key,” the attorney said, “whether the project is completed by the existing developer or another developer, is to have the completion of the project be ‘ready to go’ in the eyes of a buyer, investor or lender.” What the city is doing, he said, is “counterproductive” to completion of the project.
Camejo sent Schlesinger a letter in April saying that plan review comments requested by the city "have remained unanswered since November
2008." That, Camejo said, constitutes a "default" in the
conditions. "Should you fail to cure this default by providing the outstanding plan review items... on or before 5 p.m. May 13," Camejo said, "the agreement shall terminate without any further notice, and the permits shall be deemed expired."
At the time, Siemon told the Boca Raton News the city did not specify the information it wanted, and "my clients have asking the city to tell us."
Eden was originally envisioned as a four-building development of luxury condominiums at the edge of downtown Boca Raton. It has morphed from condos to a possible age-restricted community to luxury rental units.
In his latest letter, Siemon said “the developer remains committed to this project and is prepared to meet with the city to address any lingering concerns.”
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