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The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort is one of my favorite beach hotels in the United States. I have stayed there many times since Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide opened it in 2012 (it’s been part of Marriott Bonvoy® for many year now). It’s a gorgeous property and has some incredibly pricey residences. Condo owners are not happy and have brought up multiple safety concerns that are in a lawsuit filed this week against the property owner.
The lawsuit alleges that there is a growing mold colony, cracking concrete, corroded pipes, a leaking garage, and exposed electrical wiring along with strange barrels marked “Acid” in the garage. Al Rayyan Tourism Investment Co. (ARTIC) and its CEO (Tarek El Sayed), its local affiliate (Seldar Miami Holding), and the property manager (Gregory Polino) are all named as defendants. The condo owners want the court to rule on 24 civil counts, including unjust enrichment, gross negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty.
ARTIC bought the property from Starwood in 2014 for $213 million. The 204 condo units have banded together to hire Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to represent the association. Juan Morillo, a partner at the firm, said:
I’ve never seen issues like this, as pervasive as this, in a building that’s 12 years old. It is extraordinary for a building of this relative youth to be in this state of disrepair. We’re not complaining about cosmetic things. Just to be blunt about it, it’s not like a bunch of rich people are complaining about the wallpaper and the painting or the lighting. We’re talking about serious structural issues.”
The suit does not specify how much the plaintiffs are seeking in damages, but Morillo says that they want a judge to rule on the owner paying for all necessary repairs, which could cost tens of millions of dollars to complete.
Anthony’s Take: I’ll be watching for updates here. I am planning on returning to this property over the winter and hope that these issues are not also impacting the hotel section (although I’m sure they are if the disrepair is as bad as the lawsuit says).
(Image Credit: Marriott.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
