Buyers at The Floridian condominium in Shaw received some unwelcome if unfortunately common news last week when they were informed they would be unable to settle on their contracts until a lien and lawsuit involving one of the lenders was resolved. The condo project at 919-929 Florida Avenue, by Kady Development, has been funded by "a number of different" lenders, including Bank of America. Contract holders have had their settlements delayed until the disputes are resolved.
"The situation is that the seller, about three weeks ago, disclosed to all of our potential purchasers and [current] owners that he is having an issue with the lender and hopes to get it resolved within - what he said at the time - a month, but that he couldn’t be certain. So, we've been working with anyone who is under contract and new potential buyers and telling them that information,” said Gerard DiRuggiero of Urban Land Company.
“[We] can’t settle [contracts] at the moment. So, it’s just weekly updates and we’ve cleared that with all the buyers. Again, people are remarkably flexible and we’re giving them the information that we know. The residents seem to be handling it well and they love the building and the location,” said DiRuggiero. The Florida Avenue project sits amid several sites that were intended for development, such as the Atlantic Plumbing site, but that never materialized.
However, as of last week, the 118-units in the development’s dual, Eric Colbert-designed 8-story towers boasted an occupancy rate of 50% according to the sales team, though DC government records show only 29 recorded sales - after having begun sales in October 2005 and beginning settlements in the first half of 2008. Like the Metropole, a nearby project which was taken over by the lender in April and has been all but invisible since, the Floridian’s sales center at 913 Florida Avenue, NW, remains technically open for business…for now, at least, but without a date certain for resolving the issue. The project was built by Tompkins Builders.
Post your comments about this project below
12 comments:
Interesting news. Why is the Metropole mentioned, though? It's 20 blocks away, not "nearby" the Floridian, its sales center is in no danger of closing, and there aren't any settlement delays. I'm not sure whether the Metropole sentence is just poorly written, but it borders on business libel, particularly since dcrealestate.com was recently removed as the Metropole sales team.
In fact, as a Metropole resident I've seen more people touring units in the past few weeks than I saw all spring. It's far more than a seasonal effect. Also, we recently had a residents' party to meet the new sales staff and lender/developer and I was very impressed by how intelligent yet refreshingly genuine and down to earth they are.
It would probably be a good idea to avoid incorrectly bashing a project from which dcrealestate.com was removed--it comes across as trashy and runs contrary to a lot of really good blogging I've seen on DCmud. Keep up the good work.
Your a resident, really? I wish you hadn't posted as anonymous since we know all the residents of the building--as you correctly pointed out, we were the last sales and marketing team.
As for asking why the Metropole was mentioned in a story about a bank taking over a project, I guess that would be because the Metropole was the last project that was also taken over by the lenders. Hence the reference.
But thanks for calling us trashy!
He, that's funny. Wow, thanks anonymous "resident" for enlightening us morons on the True Nature of Things. Let us know if you find anything else on the internet that you have an opinion on, I'd love to know more.
Well of course the project has gone south - its the only project I have ever been in where they closed the sales center and left it up to buyers to figure the building out themselves. Pathetic, Kady.
Perhaps the reason you've seen more people touring the building is because, as I experienced, the new sales team simply sends people out to "tour" on their own; no bells and whistles. Friends of mine who purchased in the building when DCRealEstate.com was the sales team had the luxury of a guided tour complete with Champagne and various other refreshments. And now living in the Metropole, they don't feel too comforted by random people walking around with a map, no matter how important possible sales are to their investment.
From what I've heard from them and their fellow residents, DCRealEstate.com had more guided traffic on a day to day basis and was more classy than many other sales center teams in the city.
Doesn't seem there was anything "incorrect" about the "bashing". And I tend to trust real estate professionals more when it comes to their reporting on the real estate industry.
You can attribute the last paragraph of the story to the editor, for what its worth. We thought it would be an interesting bit of color.
I would never, ever buy in a new condo building. As this article demonstrates, there are too many ways that you can get bitten. An owner fails to disclose a dispute and you are stuck. You can't refinance. And, what if the builder cut corners on construction and you are in a building with 20% occupancy? (It appears that real estate offices routinely lie about occupancy and sales rates. No code of ethics there.) With 20% occupancy, an assessment for a new roof or foundation work is divided between just a few owners. And good luck selling!
New condo buildings are traps.
Additional interest at the Metropole may have something to do with price cuts. Just a thought.
Lots of bitter real estate agents on this page...wow.
You didn't know real estate agents were bitter??? You child...
No surprise here, we have been trying to get our deposit back since they missed the deadline by over a year. Putting together a suit now if anyone else would like to join us.
Contact me here
http://depositrecovery.ning.com/
Sean
Glad to see this closed down. I was in there twice - not an easy feat to do when I couldn't get in touch with the sales team - and was greeted by a pushy, obnoxious sales agent. Unbelievable that they could have a hard time selling and still be so cavalier. Total lack of thought to this process.
Post a Comment
Commercial ads will be deleted, so don't even think about it.