Eight buyers are now seeking to get out of their contracts and have their deposits refunded at J. Milton & Associates’ long-delayed Parque Towers luxury condo project in Sunny Isles Beach.
Since March, four buyers filed lawsuits in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court against the development group of the two-tower, 320-unit project at 300-330 Sunny Isles Boulevard, after construction delays of more than a year, according to the suits.
Most of the buyers first put down a deposit in 2014, expecting their units to be substantially completed by the end of 2017, with a closing date of December 2018 at the latest, the suits state.
One of the towers, known as Tower 4, has received a certificate of occupancy and closings are already underway. The other tower, Tower 5, has still not been completed and has not received it certificate of occupancy.
In the most recent suit, Bruno Augusto Sacchi Zaremba of Brazil put down a $500,000 deposit for unit 5-2103, which had a purchase price of $1 million.
Attorney Gary Davidson of the Miami law firm Diaz Reus & Targ, who represents Zaremba and two other buyers in lawsuits against the development group, said the developer has told his clients repeatedly that the project will be done soon.
“It’s difficult to understand how you can make those commitments in such strong language, and they say well, that’s not really binding.”
Attorney David Reiner, who represents four of the buyers who have sued the developer, said the buyers “have waited and waited and waited… it was just too long.”
J. Milton is a long-time developer in South Florida, whose projects in Sunny Isles include the IntraCoastal Yacht Club and the Sands Pointe Ocean Beach Condominium. A call to J. Milton & Associates President and CEO Joseph Milton was not immediately returned.
The developer’s attorney Robert Frankel said the troubles with J. Milton’s latest project stem from a variety of issues, including “unforeseen geological issues.” Frankel said closings in the fifth tower should be happening in the coming weeks, and more than 100 units have closed in the fourth tower.
He said the lawsuits could be motivated by buyers who are looking to get out of their contracts because the condo market has slowed down. He also said “a lot of purchasers are Brazilian nationals who are having difficulty getting their funds from their home country.” He said this has made it more difficult for them to put down the remaining money needed to close.
Parque Towers is one of the many luxury condo projects in the wealthy beach town of Sunny Isles. Sunny Isles has about 17 years of inventory of condos priced at $5 million and up, according to a recent report from EWM Realty International.