Two years after a $21 million assessment for repairs outraged owners at a Brickell condo complex, the association is suing its contractor, alleging it overbilled and left work undone.
The 1060 Brickell Condominium Association, which represents 592 units at two 45-story towers, sued American Construction & Engineering, saying it tacked on — and received — funds for work and materials it didn’t provide and then filed two fraudulent liens saying it’s owed additional payment, according to the complaint.
The property consists of 576 residential and 16 commercial units at the 1050 Brickell and 1060 Brickell buildings in Miami.
The suit is the latest flare-up at a complex that has been consumed by conflict in recent years.
On a macro level across South Florida, many condo owners are pushing back against costly repair projects that have become mandatory since the Surfside collapse prompted stricter structural safety laws.
A growing number of owners say their boards, engineers and contractors are exploiting the safety rules to rush projects, pad repair work, include unnecessary cosmetic items and saddle unit owners with hefty assessments.
At the 1060 Brickell association, tensions trace back to 2024, when then-boardmembers put forth the planned $21 million special assessment for repairs, with many unit owners questioning the need. Many pointed out that the towers, completed in 2008, were only 16 years old at the time — far short of the 30-year trigger for a structural recertification requirement.
A group of unit owners led a hard-fought battle to oust the former board, which had imposed the assessment.
Even though the board was replaced, current President Dorinda Spahr confirmed to The Real Deal that the assessment remained in place.
Spahr said the board recall spared the complex from potential pricey change orders that were in store and would have pushed the cost closer to $48 million.
Miami-based American Construction & Engineering, or ACE, had been hired for the work, including replacement of damaged stucco, repairs of the concrete, post-tension cables and cracks, waterproofing, painting, glass and glazing work, according to the association’s complaint. But ACE’s two construction liens filed in August for nearly $3 million are “willfully exaggerated” and include amounts not even due under ACE’s contracts with the association, the suit says.
For the 1050 Brickell tower, ACE was overpaid by $1.5 million, yet it claimed it’s due roughly this amount in one of its liens, while ACE’s 1060 Brickell lien for about $1.5 million overstates the amount the contract is owed by roughly $840,000, according to the complaint.
The Miami-Dade Circuit Court complaint, filed last Thursday, raises claims for breach of contract, fraudulent claim of lien and slander of title.
ACE and its owner, Peter Anta, didn’t return requests for comment.
A troubled history
Spahr and two other owners sued last year over a canceled November 2024 board election. Although Spahr ran for the board at the time, the association disqualified her, claiming she was overdue on payments, though she was late on levies tied to the use of common space storage, for which owners don’t receive invoices, TRD reported at the time, citing court filings.
Unit owners filed arbitration petitions with the state’s department of business and professional regulation and led their own recall effort, twice voting to replace the former board.
In the fall of last year, a Miami-Dade judge issued an order in a separate suit involving 1060 Brickell for the former board to turn over association control and records.
Separately, married couple Jessica Bergman and Antonio Sevillano, who are unit owners, sued the association in late 2024 over the $21 million assessment, claiming the board imposed it without the unit owner approval required by the declaration, according to the complaint.
According to court filings, the association said it based the assessments on its engineer’s structural integrity reserve study report, while the unit owners’ engineer disputed the urgency for the work. After the board was turned over, that case settled privately.
Bergman and Sevillano’s complaint alleged the board’s vote on the assessment collection mandated unit owners pay a quarter of their share upfront and then pay the balance in nine quarterly installments.
About two or three installments are left on the assessment, Spahr said.
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