They Refused to Sell. So the Building Started Disappearing Around Them.

In 2022, a developer spent about $150 million buying up a 1964 waterfront condo tower in Miami's Edgewater. It ended up owning 183 of the 192 units, roughly 95 percent, and planned to demolish the building for a 55-story luxury tower with prices starting around $1.7 million. There was one problem. The building's original declaration from 1964 required 100 percent of owners to approve a termination. Not the 80 percent in Florida's condo statute. Every single owner. Which meant each of the remaining residents held a veto over the demolition of the entire tower. So the developer, which now controlled the condo association board, amended the declaration and lowered the threshold to 80 percent. Ten residents sued in May 2023. They lost the first round, and the developer began stripping the building for demolition. The windows came out. The air conditioning went. The plumbing and wiring were torn out. The holdouts were locked out of homes they still legally owned, and they had never been paid. Then the appeals court reversed. Twice. In October 2025 the Florida Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In January 2026 a judge ordered the developer to put the building back to its May 2023 condition, a restoration the Wall Street Journal reported at around $65 million, citing a report commissioned by the lender. The developer sued the residents to escape the order. The residents amended their claim to seek at least $100 million, including from the banks that financed the deal. On August 31, 2026, it settled. This video walks through the whole siege and explains what a condo termination actually is, why the Surfside inspection and reserve mandates have pushed so many aging Florida buildings toward developer buyouts, and the single paragraph in your own declaration that decides whether you have a vote, a veto, or neither.