Amethyst Condo Buyout Drags On With Latest Lawsuit

Years into a litigious and drawn out buyout of the Amethyst in Miami Beach, one owner is trying another approach through his lawsuit against the developer and condo association.

Robert Pelier, an attorney who owns two units at the oceanfront building at 5313 Collins Avenue, filed a lawsuit last week that focuses on the threshold for termination, a legal process that’s required before a developer knocks down a building and redevelops the property.

A number of owners at the 120-unit building have been in limbo for at least five years. The building, constructed in 1964, is zoned RM-3, which allows for buildings of up to 200-feet tall along the oceanfront.

Miami-based Mast Capital began acquiring units at Amethyst in 2021. The following year, the association and the Mast Capital affiliate worked to amend the condo documents to lower the termination threshold to 80 percent from 100 percent, according to the complaint. Pelier alleges that the amendment is invalid and that it should have required unanimous approval from all unit owners, not the two-thirds majority.

Attorney Aymee Gonzalez, who is representing Pelier against the developer and the condo association, said her client is going after the legality of the amendment and seeking to recover the veto power that all unit owners had.

This type of termination clause amendment is also at the center of the Biscayne 21 condo buyout saga in Miami’s Edgewater, where a group of holdout owners sued the developer, an affiliate of Two Roads Development.

Pelier’s lawsuit cites Biscayne 21.

In that case, an appeals court ruled that amending the termination requirement altered unit owners’ voting rights. Two Roads had already closed on the majority of units by that point, and the developer is locked in a bitter fight with the holdouts. Earlier this year, a Miami-Dade judge ordered the developer to restore the waterfront condo building to a habitable state, including repairs and restoring utilities such as air conditioning, water and electricity. In response, Two Roads sued the holdout owners.

In a statement provided to The Real Deal, the Mast affiliate said that it was part of the 85 percent of unit owners, representing two votes, that approved the amendment at the Amethyst in 2022. “We continue to support the amendment and maintain its validity,” the statement reads.

Mast did not provide an update on the status of the buyout. Condo association president Luis Naya did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unit owners told TRD as early as 2023 that they felt the developer’s contracts were holding them “hostage,” as they were unable to get out or negotiate with a new buyer. Property records show the developer has acquired 35 units since 2021. The most recent sale was recorded in September for an undisclosed amount.

The condo association sued the developer’s LLC in 2023 in a lawsuit settled a year later, court records show. Unit owners Clifford and Maria Greenhouse sued the Mast Capital entity in 2023. In early 2025, a Miami-Dade judge granted the couple partial summary judgment. Months later, the two sides settled their case.

Mast Capital was successful in its buyout of the oceanfront building next door, where Mast and Starwood Capital are building the Perigon Miami Beach. Construction recently topped off.