A Miami Beach landlord is threatening to evict everyone from this 102-unit building
On Thursday evening, members of the Gardens on the Bay owners association gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss a harrowing reality: Everyone at the three-story, waterfront property at 6484 Indian Creek Dr. in Miami Beach is facing possible eviction.
Days earlier, owners at the 102-unit building had been served with a lawsuit that names more than 140 defendants, ordering them to respond within five days or potentially be removed from their homes.
The eviction notices stem from claims of a failure to properly maintain and insure the 1954 building, which is due for recertification next year and is in need of at least $2 million in repairs, according to the landlord, an LLC controlled by Miami-based Millennium Management and its leader, healthcare magnate Abraham Shaulson.
An alternative solution could require the residents to pay a large assessment — which some may be unable to afford.
Several residents responded to the eviction lawsuit in handwritten court filings, pleading for mercy.
“Why do you want to throw an old woman out of her home?” wrote Marta Alvarez, 92, a widow who has lived in the building for more than three decades. “Who will help me if I move to a strange place?”
The building, a former motel known as Garden of Allah until 1984, is nestled between newly-renovated Brittany Bay Park and the sleek Shane Watersports Center. On a road replete with luxury condos, the nearly 70-year-old structure looks like a relic.
It operates much like a co-op, with the land owned by a company that leases it to an owners association under a long-term deal that expires in 2056. Each unit owner has a stake in the lease.
In its lawsuit, the landlord argues the individual unit owners are “tenants” under the lease agreement and are each responsible for maintaining the building, and therefore should all be evicted for breaching the lease.
The owners association, represented by condo law firm Becker & Poliakoff, disagrees. The association — which receives maintenance fees from unit owners and pays the landlord $65,000 per year — says it, not the individual unit owners, is the tenant under the lease.
“Relying on this incomprehensible position, Owner has now threatened eviction proceedings against the unit owners within the Association,” the association said in a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in February, after Shaulson’s company sent an initial “notice of termination” to the unit owners.
The dispute reflects trends in South Florida and the North Beach neighborhood, where residents of aging, relatively affordable coastal buildings are facing pressure from investors and lawmakers to spend more on maintenance and insurance or risk being displaced.
Several unit owners at Gardens on the Bay, many of whom are seniors on fixed incomes, said they were “depressed” after receiving the eviction notice.
“It’s like they’re bullying us,” said Pedro Vilorio, 78, a resident since 1997. “We don’t have any place to go.”
READ MORE: ‘Seems like bullying to me’: Investors took over their condo boards. Costs skyrocketed
Margarita Babilonia, 66, said she and her fiance Brian Colonna paid $130,000 for a unit last year, moving from New York after both retired.
“We’re so depressed,” Babilonia said. “We thought we were buying into a place where we were safe.”
Meanwhile, the association’s lawyers — who include Michael Gongora, a former Miami Beach city commissioner and current candidate for mayor — have said they likely can’t represent individual unit owners in the eviction lawsuit due to potential conflicts of interest, according to association president Irene Lopez.
Unit owners are now scrambling for representation. One lawyer said he would need $3,500 from each of the 102 owners as a retainer, Lopez said.
“We need that money for the building,” she said.
This week, the association filed a motion to intervene in the eviction lawsuit and asked for a stay of the proceedings, which Miami-Dade County Court Judge Stephanie Silver granted until a hearing set for June 27.
‘No choice’ but to evict
The building passed its required 60-year recertification from the city of Miami Beach in 2018. There is just one open violation at the property for unpermitted remodeling of a unit, according to city officials.
But an engineering report commissioned by Shaulson’s company last summer found numerous cracks in the concrete and other deficiencies that the company says will cost at least $2 million to repair.
In its lawsuit, the landlord also said the building lacks adequate insurance, an issue the company has repeatedly flagged in a series of letters to the owners association over the past several years. Last month, the building’s property insurance company said it would not renew its policy, citing the age and condition of the roof.
“The failure by the Tenants and the Association has left Landlord with no choice but to start an eviction action,” J. Joseph Givner, an attorney for the landlord, said in a letter to the association on Friday.
The letter, sent after the Herald began inquiring about the situation, says the landlord has no desire to evict anyone. It proposes a “compromise” with a 10-day deadline for the association to respond: The landlord will reinstate the lease if the unit owners comply with a list of terms, including obtaining required insurance by June 26 and repairing “all problems with the physical condition” of the building within 90 days.
Lopez, the association president, said it would be highly difficult to complete repairs within that timeline given how long the process typically takes and the financial situation of the unit owners, many of whom likely could not afford to pay a special assessment of $20,000 or more.
Lopez said Shaulson’s approach has been hostile ever since his company bought the property from Barry University for $3.2 million in 2019.
“Now he’s attacking each and every owner,” she said. “I’m not going to let anybody steal our property.”
‘They know how valuable that spot is’
Gretchen Merkle, a unit owner for over 35 years, said she knows the building needs work. And she has gripes about the association, accusing board members of sometimes failing to communicate with owners and being overly focused on enforcing strict rules — monitoring security cameras to catch violations like jumping in the pool or hanging towels from balconies.
But Merkle said she doesn’t blame the board for the ongoing eviction threat. Instead, she says it looks like a “land grab” with a goal of ultimately knocking down the building and redeveloping a prime piece of real estate — one where residents can look across the Intracoastal Waterway from their pool deck and see a $16.3 million mansion purchased last year by the rapper Future.
“They want to find something wrong with the building,” Merkle said. “They know how valuable that spot is.”
A spokesperson for the landlord denied that demolition and redevelopment is the intent.
“Landlord does not have a history of developing property and has never advised the tenants or anyone else that it is looking to knock down the building and redevelop,” the spokesperson said.
Residents remain fearful. In a letter filed in court, unit owner Patricia Rizzotto, 62, said she was “shocked and dismayed it has come to this.”
“My home is my everything,” she said.
