Lionstone Development officially took control of One Bal Harbour, which is about to become a Ritz-Carlton, in a $12 million transaction.
The 10295 Collins Avenue condo-hotel was mired in litigation for nearly six years after the 2008 Chapter 11 filing of developer WCI Communities. Affiliates of Miami-based Lionstone recently acquired nine condo-hotel units and the common area from the condominium association. The owner of the common area can dictate the hotel’s management.
“One Bal Harbour residents awoke this morning to Ritz-Carlton’s stylized lion on the front door,” Hinshaw & Culbertson partner Steven Carlyle Cronig said in a news release cited by the South Florida Business Journal.
Cronig, a Coral Gables-based attorney, represented the association in its removal of the previous owner from managing the property through litigation and bankruptcy. [South Florida Business Journal] — Eric Kalis