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Epic Hotel owners sue condo association over $763K in allegedly unpaid expenses
Partners Lionstone Development, CMC Group and Amancio Ortega’s Grupo Ponte Gadea accuse association of violating master declaration
From left: Grupo Ponte Gadea’s Amancio Ortega, CMC Group’s Ugo Colombo and the Epic Hotel at 200 Biscayne Boulevard Way (Getty, Grupo Ponte Gadea, CMC Group, Compass)
An Epic legal battle is brewing at a waterfront condo-hotel in downtown Miami.
The hotel owner of the Epic Miami Residences & Hotel at 200 Biscayne Boulevard Way is suing the condo association for the 54-story tower’s condominium component. The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Oct. 20, alleges the association hasn’t paid $763,313 in shared maintenance expenses dating back to 2020.
Epic Hotel is owned by Spanish fashion mogul Amancio Ortega’s Grupo Ponte Gadea and his partners, Miami-based development firms CMC Group, led by CEO Ugo Colombo, and Lionstone, led by CEO Diego Lowenstein. In 2008, the partnership developed the 54-story luxury tower along the Miami River on the former site of the DuPont Plaza Hotel.
The 414-room hotel portion is managed by Kimpton.
The condo association for Epic’s 362 residential units is in violation of the condo-hotel’s master declaration that requires maintenance and repairs of the building’s common areas be shared equally, the lawsuit alleges.
Attorneys for Epic Hotel and Epic West Condominium Association President Richard Ortoli did not respond to emails requesting comment.
A bulk of the funds the association allegedly owes, roughly $398,000, is for a line item identified as “BDA Project” on a list of repairs and maintenance expenses attached to the lawsuit. The association also allegedly owes $104,000 for a new moisture control system in the building’s elevator shafts, $91,000 to upgrade security cameras and nearly $33,000 to replace smoke detectors that were completed this year, the list shows.
Lionstone and CMC had also previously planned to develop an adjacent 1.2-acre site at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way, but the developers abandoned the project due to the 2008 recession.
In 2014, the partnership sold the property for $125 million to G&G Business Developments, which partnered with Aston Martin to develop the luxury automobile maker’s first branded condominium. The 66-story Aston Martin Residences tower with 391 units is currently under construction.