Condo Owners Seeking $23M For Fort Lauderdale Building They Evacuated
Springbrook Gardens, a 77-year-old waterfront condominium complex in Fort Lauderdale, has been listed for sale just three months after residents were forced to evacuate when the building was deemed to be structurally unsafe.
The condominium association has tapped Sam Gaita of The Corcoran Group and Donna Carbonara of Douglas Elliman to market their 28K SF site at 125 N. Birch Road to developers. The property, touting 196 feet of Intracoastal Waterway frontage and by right zoning to build 45 residential units or 58 hotel rooms, is being listed for $23M.
The listing has already drawn significant attention and is expected to be torn down for a bigger project, Gaita told Bisnow in a phone call Thursday. The neighborhood is a prime location for development, with upscale neighbors like The Ritz-Carlton and its proximity to the beach and waterway, Gaita said.
“We're getting so much interest on it that I will do a drop deadline to get the final offers, and then we'll choose at that point,” Gaita said. “That's probably about a month away.”
The condo owners voted to sell their units after being unable to meet a $4.5M repair bill for the building's foundation, CBS reported. Each unit owner would have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars after they had already evacuated the building in September.
A new state mandate for condo owners of older buildings to fund reserves has created a plethora of condo owners facing the same difficult decision: fork over hefty sums to fund repairs or try to find a buyer.
The collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside that claimed 98 lives in June 2021 brought urgent attention to neglected repairs in aging condo buildings. In response, Florida legislators passed Senate Bill 4-D in 2022 requiring owners in older buildings to fund their reserves and undergo structural evaluations every 10 years.
Condo associations with a structural integrity reserve study must begin making contributions for budgets adopted on or after Dec. 31.
“Not everybody realizes the problem, because some people are in a better financial position than others,” Gaita said. “Unfortunately, some properties of a lot of people — they just can't afford to keep up with paying for the deferred maintenance, the additional special assessments, plus the increase in the association dues.”
Many owners have been trying to sell their units before confronting the new reality. Condo listings rose 60% in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in the third quarter, according to ISG World. Values for condos averaging 30 years or older fell more than $100K, from $325K in 2022 to $218K at the end of September 2024.
Gaita said the push to sell the properties is only set to grow in 2025.
“I'm already seeing it,” Gaita said. “I'm getting more interest, I'm getting more calls and I'm getting more inquiries.”
Now that the deadline has passed, reserve contributions are required. However, those still waiting for an inspector, undergoing inspections or planning to finish their milestone inspection by 2026 may be able to waive payments one last time, particularly if they want to lower the anticipated reserve amount, the Miami Herald reported.
Selling a building isn't always a straightforward solution, Gaita said. Many developers have targeted aging condo buildings for new projects, but getting a critical mass of unit owners to agree to sell — and getting a fair deal — is far from a guarantee.
“These are extremely complex transactions, and you need to have an experienced broker and an experienced lawyer representing the board,” Gaita said. “I've seen and heard of horror stories of developers tying people up for years.”
