Owners in the nearby Bayfront Tower have been assessed for deteriorating outer walls, but that was built in the 1970s.Īlthough Signature Place's problems became public almost a year ago, the high demand for condos in downtown St. Special assessments for condo repairs are not unusual, though they typically involve much older buildings in need of new roofs and the like. Plagued by slow sales, Cantor, the developer, had to slash prices and finally resorted to an auction to unload dozens of the 244 units. S, was announced in 2005 at the peak of the real estate boom and neared completion just as the market collapsed in 2008.
They are required to make their reports available to the city, though Dunn could not say whether the city looked at those for Signature Place.Īs for other components of a new high rise, "It's pretty difficult for any building department to do a complete inspection of every inch of a building when you're doing 20 inspections a day," Dunn said. Rick Dunn, the city's building official, said rebar is supposed to be inspected by state-licensed engineers hired by the project's owner. He added, though, that "inspectors are human and make mistakes. "One of the reasons why there are inspections and that you have city inspectors is that they come through and are supposed to be catching all of this," said Roberts, president of a company that represents makers of commercial heating and air conditioning systems. He said he was among a "vocal" group of owners who thought repairs and assessments should be delayed until the suit was resolved and the condo association knew how much, if any, money it would receive. "Obviously at that point nobody knew how big it was going to be," Roberts said. Derrick Roberts, who paid $1.835 million for the penthouse in February, said he knew before buying that the Signature Place Condominium Association was suing developer Joel Cantor, Lend Lease Construction (formerly Bovis) and others. 1, range from $9,910 for the smallest units to $132,244 for the three-story penthouse, according to the schedule obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. Signature Place has many units that are moderately priced by luxury-condo standards: Patenaude paid $277,000 for hers five years ago after selling a house. "Everybody thinks everybody living here is a millionaire but I'm not," said Patenaude, 70, a retired teacher who lives on $35,000 a year from a pension and Social Security. Although the amount will be spread over 10 years, it will still add $230 a month to the $768 she already pays in condo association fees. "I'm sitting most of the time with earplugs, it's so loud," condo owner Birte Patenaude said Wednesday.Īccording to the assessment schedule given to all owners, Patenaude will have to pay $27,537 in special assessments on her one-bedroom unit.
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