People, The Trouble With Condos

September 5, 2008

Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC

People, The Trouble With Condos…

210 East Trade/EpiCenter

Developer stops sales of units at troubled condo building         

 

With no end in sight to the legal troubles surrounding the stalled 210 Trade condo building, its onsite sales team has moved out.

In a letter to condo owners last week, Builder Services Inc., an arm of Allen Tate, said the team was leaving the sales office, citing “issues … in the court system, thus temporarily curtailing our ability to sell property at this location.”

The company plans to monitor the building's progress and update buyers through a Web site it created for them, the letter said.

Questions about the move were referred to a spokesman for the developer, Charlotte FC, part of the Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins. He did not immediately return phone calls Thursday.

Charlotte FC will not sell more units until the legal issues are resolved, its attorney, Lee Spinks, said.

Work on the 50-story tower, part of the EpiCentre complex uptown, stopped in February, with two floors built, because of a disagreement over technical building-code issues.

Its developer and the EpiCentre's,

Pacific Avenue

, part of the Charlotte-based Ghazi Co., have filed lawsuits against each other, alleging various breaches of contract that led to the stalemate.

Both sides have said they want the project to move forward. The latest contract gives developers until December 2010, with the option to extend up to four months beyond that, to finish the building.

Spinks said Charlotte FC hopes construction can be started in time to meet the deadline and that the developer will let buyers know when that will be – or if it's unable to start construction in coming months.

Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC

Kirsten Valle/The Charlotte Observer