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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCondo owners lose 30% of value, views and sunlight when developer builds 7 story condos in front of property
Furious millionaires slam developer for destroying gated private paradise island by building huge 91ft high luxury condos that will block out sun
The residents of Grove Isle are devastated over a new development
The new building shields their once-spectacular views
Lawsuits allege violations of planning laws, but construction proceeds
The millionaire residents of a secluded island in Miami say their private paradise has been destroyed, after the city allowed a developer to build a huge 91-foot high, seven-story block of condos that now blots out their waterfront views.
What once offered spectacular vistas of Biscayne Bay and the skyline of downtown Miami has now been blocked by an enormous stadium-like construction of new condominiums, leaving residents in the pre-existing blocks completely in the shade.
Not only that, the way the new block has been constructed with its curved design has created a wind tunnel effect, meaning patio furniture on the neighboring balconies is being blown around. The prices of the original homes are also said to have plummeted by 30 percent.
before
after
David Schaecter, 94, is an original Grove Isle resident. He and wife Sydney live in a west-facing unit on the third floor. They used to overlook the marina and tennis courts but now overlook the new building
When the original buildings were constructed in 1979, the address was seen as one of the most exclusive enclaves in Miami, offering a huge amount of privacy
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13360411/Grove-Isle-miami-apartment-complex-blocked-lawsuit-angry-residents.html
LonePirate
(13,448 posts)I dont see any judge ordering the deconstruction of the new buildings. This might be settled out of court but that seems unlikely to me as well.
LeftInTX
(25,824 posts)They will never be able to sell their condos near market value. The original condos will go down hill fast.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)big loss for them...to stare at windows of other condos
Old Crank
(3,681 posts)So in a private sale what is paid is market value.
These people are getting a taste of how regular people are treated by developers
SWBTATTReg
(22,226 posts)Miami and the whole area of FL was / is nice to enjoy. Just too bad that 'just taking your fly rod and finding a spot to fish "even tho you know that you're not going to catch a fish, you know what i mean.
Permanut
(5,719 posts)Buns_of_Fire
(17,218 posts)Imagine these poor millionaires stuck with having nothing to stare at all day but other millionaires.
brush
(53,978 posts)Hope they don't have that worry too.
meadowlander
(4,413 posts)at a time when loss of amenity was their biggest problem in the world.
Sorry but if you bought waterfront property in Florida in the past 30 years, you did it to yourself.
Earthrise
(15,542 posts)Brenda
(1,087 posts)experiencing severe flooding, hurricane damage and infrastructure failure.
There should be a moratorium on building on the coasts especially on barrier islands.
FEMA has the whole country to take care of not just rich selfish people in Florida who can't see the writing on the wall.
jimfields33
(16,167 posts)True Dough
(17,395 posts)Hurricanes will very likely dismantle whatever is going up.
Traildogbob
(8,906 posts)The outrageous increase in home insurance.
Everybody else have to cover the cost of the inevitable.
Maybe the weight will sink the whole millionaire paradise, and create habitat for sea life.
Fake coral reefs.
True Dough
(17,395 posts)Something along those lines.
ZonkerHarris
(24,308 posts)flvegan
(64,426 posts)If your property doesn't directly abut the water, if you don't have restrictions in place, consider your view, your sunlight, temporary.
DFW
(54,520 posts)The house next to ours had a big lawn, and was, itself of modest size with the big lawn adjacent to our house. Our neighbors across the street have a tiny, but cozy little yard where they can sit outside and have afternoon tea of the (formerly) rare days when the weather permitted. The elderly people in the house next to us decided to move down south to Freiburg and sell their house and land. They even offered our friends across the street the land with the lawn for 200,000 to protect their yard's sunny summer afternoons, but that would have involved some debt that they didn't want to incur with three small-to-high-school aged children. Finally, a businessman who had just inherited a few million bought the whole thing, razed the house to the ground, and built a monstrous Bauhaus villa, way larger than anything in the neighborhood. Instead of a copse of trees and a nice lawn next to us, we now have an iron fence and some wall of this immense house. Our neighbors have no more sunlight in their yard in the afternoon, and the rich guy who built the fortress next to us lives in this immense villa all alone, with only visits from his children from his ex, and the occasional girlfriend or family member. A few other such perversities got built in our area before the whole city office charged with handing out permits resigned and fled (bribes received, so no reason to stick around).
The neighbors sued, lost, and the rich guy now lives all alone in his big fancy house, socially cut off from the rest of the people in the immediate neighborhood, who asked him, before he finalized his plans for the house, to scale it down. He said no. He is friends with exactly nobody in the area, whereas the rest of us get together regularly.
This "because I can" mentality is not restricted to Florida.
LeftInTX
(25,824 posts)(These homes were built in the 70s, two story, larger than average lots) A few months after they moved in, the next door neighbor demolished the house and is now doing all sorts of stuff. Fortunately, it doesn't bother them. (Their old neighborhood off of MLK in east Austin were mostly 1920'a bungalows and shotgun homes that were recently converted into two stories)
marble falls
(57,615 posts)... and lower middle class out of Austin. Especially in East and Central Austin. These "homes" raise property values of everyone's home. Just so .com-ers ca have ridiculous homes in SoCo or East Austin.
You and I know what happened to Austin and it isn't pretty.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.BvgEcC6-1OqUqyEZkW-A2AHaFj%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=a7ebd0405c30ded83c41f63e78e6ea1aac07e31a0e5324460623fb91cfa7b6cb&ipo=images
This was built in a neighborhood of 1920s two bedroom single story homes. This is why I left Austin: could not afford to buy or rent. This was twenty years ago at a time when I was making over $50K/year, a single custodial dad with two kids.
Johnny2X2X
(19,311 posts)Regulations and zoning ordinances are the only thing that gets more affordable housing built, otherwise it's all just luxury condos and mcMansions because that's what nets the builders the biggest profit. My city has been in a condo building boom for over a decade, but the city makes the builders save some of the units for affordable housing, so the bottom couple floors of any new highrise condo/apartment are usually market value and some even take Section 8.
So housing prices going up is not a bad thing if you own a house. But renters are seeing rents rise too quickly right now to be able to save for their own home. Home ownership is still the most sure way to build wealth and have security in this country. And despite what it might seem like, the rate of home ownership in the US has remained basically the same for 50 or 60 years at betweem 63 and 69%. The 66% it's at right now is a little higher than it was during the golden age of the middle class in the US, the 1960s and 1970s. For most people, trying to save up the down payment is the barrier to home ownership. It's hard to save up the minimum of $15K you need in the cheaper areas to live.
marble falls
(57,615 posts)bluesbassman
(19,387 posts)Were now on what I fear will be permanent phase 4 water restrictions where the only yard watering allowed is by hand - no automatic irrigation. Yet all the new development requires lawn thar cannot be watered. Were actively looking out of state for our retirement home.
LeftInTX
(25,824 posts)My neighborhood was built late 70's early 80s. Our HOA doesn't allow demos, garage conversions, adding an extra story, adding an extra house etc. So, we don't have to worry neighbors demoing and turning their place in multi-units.
I just checked out New Braunfels population stats. I'm like..what???
This is crazy:
1990 27,334 22.0%
2000 36,494 33.5%
2010 57,740 58.2%
2020 90,403 56.6%
2022 104,707 15.8%
I thought maybe they were pushing up towards 50 K...I had absolutely no idea!!!
bluesbassman
(19,387 posts)It'll be like the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles soon. Take you two hours to drive 30 miles.
marble falls
(57,615 posts)... from. We've passed that number decades ago. We're just waiting for a perfect drinking water failure.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)windows of two story mcmansions overlooking one story homes and their backyards.
Old Crank
(3,681 posts)There are restrictions on that. Second story window sill heights are higher which make it harder to look down. Required planting of trees to block site lines. A few other items. Plus neighbors are notified.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)Old Crank
(3,681 posts)But when I was on the planning commission some of the neighbors used the rules and procedures as a cudgel against an Asian family that wanted to enlarge their house so one set of parents could live with them.
DFW
(54,520 posts)Land is extremely expensive, especially as close to Düsseldorf as we are, and the whole team of the permit office has to be in on the corruption. If just one is honest, the others get ratted out.
Old Crank
(3,681 posts)A potential shade from your new building in with your plans. You are limited in how much shade your addition or remodel can throw on other property.
Old Crank
(3,681 posts)Also the 2 other buildings behind theirs have restricted views.
I don't know the planning process in FL. So I don't know how much input they were allowed. I do know that where I lived in CA a lot of notice is given and then people show up and complain that the development was just sprung on them with zero notice.
LeftInTX
(25,824 posts)(Looks like there's enough space between them and they're staggered. Although there are units without an ocean view, it's better than this claustrophic view. Plus they purchased those units know why they were getting.
I can't quite figure all the ins and outs, but it sounds like the HOA made decisions without consulting the condo owners. Sounds like a saga. I think most of the residents are retired.
snips....
The lawsuit alleges the city, upon the recommendation of recently fired City Attorney Victoria Mendez, broke its own laws by granting building permits to Vita developer Eduardo Avila even though the property was never platted, or mapped and subdivided in accordance with city code.
There are hundreds of pages of documents lawsuits, settlement agreements, judges decisions, architectural drawings, revisions of architectural drawings, platting surveys, emails, memos, permits. There are differing accounts of the agonizing dispute as residents and their homeowners association tried to stop the new condo.
But what is clear from a Miami Herald review is that Vita escaped the citys normal approval process. The new condo was borne out of a 2020 settlement signed by the developer and three HOA leaders after closed-door negotiations without ever being voted on by Grove Isle homeowners.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/coconut-grove/article287349750.html
https://archive.ph/i8M4s
Even more:
Apparently they sued the new property owner in 2015.
group of residents filed a lawsuit to stop his project at 4 Grove Isle Dr. and accused him of vindictively shutting down their slice of paradise. Their lawsuit comes just days after the developer filed his own lawsuit against the city, and follows the islands condo associations suit against the developer.
https://archive.ph/Ubs9e
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)the owners of the existing three buildings would have spaces between the new buildings to peer between... retaining some of their ocean views. Instead they get this one building monstrosity.
Old Crank
(3,681 posts)Plus the leaders of the HOA have run amuck. Money talks and I don't think that this will get torn down. The only people really affected are from the lower half of the one unit.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)the land home owners must have been angry with the three island condo buildings went up
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(8,200 posts)Chainfire
(17,757 posts)pstokely
(10,541 posts)marble falls
(57,615 posts)... no sympathy for them at all, not a bit. They'll just go out and gentrify a middle class or a poorer neighborhood.
BoRaGard
(212 posts)Shitting on other people, including other Republicans.
It's what they do.
Vinca
(50,336 posts)kiddies and the ASPCA's starving dogs.
XanaDUer2
(10,860 posts)David__77
(23,641 posts)Its reasonable to consider the potential for future development when buying a home.
Happy Hoosier
(7,491 posts)Don;t get me wrong... if I was one of them, I'd be pissed. But I'm not. And most South Florida rich people suck. So I have quite a bit of Schadenfreude.
honest.abe
(8,694 posts)I can only imagine what they paid for those condos. Even with 30% loss in value I am sure its alot more than what my house is worth.
onethatcares
(16,213 posts)those places will cost the rest of us a lot of money to rebuild. Maybe they'll get beach renourishment funds to build their own private islands without a bridge.
I see no one discussing how the waste water is taken care of or the drinking water pumped in. I'm sure they don't truck it in in 80 gallon jugs.
Nor are they discussing the cost of insurance for these Richie Riches. Once they go down or flood out who would think about rebuilding.
harumph
(1,923 posts)Chakaconcarne
(2,484 posts)Not affecting views, but sunlight.
ripcord
(5,553 posts)So I built on 5 acres, I am in the middle as far from them as I can get.
marble falls
(57,615 posts)... the new building's owners' parade. Their current value fell 30% of their value? After how many years of appreciation? I refuse to pity the wealthy who will be just fine, no matter what.
Silent Type
(3,060 posts)They might get paid something as a nuance settlement for lost value, but thats still questionable.
JoseBalow
(2,624 posts)Pobrecitos!
In Too Deep
(60 posts)You bought a condo in a high-rise - a high-rise that likely blocks the view of someone else.
I don't feel sorry that your view was then blocked.