They fought for years to stay in their Miami condo — and now they settled

Real Estate News admin September 2, 2026 0 Comments

They fought for years to stay in their Miami condo — and now they settled

It looked like the residents of the Biscayne 21 condo in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood were headed for a rare win in a fight against a developer trying to buy out their building.

A judge sided with the condo residents in a suit that had been described as a battle between David and Goliath — with repercussions for developers across Florida looking to buy out, terminate and redevelop older condo buildings.

But after several more months of litigation over a separate lawsuit, South Florida developer Two Roads Development reached a settlement with the condo owners.

The agreement clears the way for the developer to build its planned luxury condo tower on the site. The firm is paying about $50 million to the 10 holdout owners, ending the years-long battle over the future of 2121 N. Bayshore Dr.

Taylor Collins, a managing partner at Two Roads, said the lawsuit stalled his firm’s project, but Two Roads plans to start construction this month on the EDITION Residences, Miami Edgewater. Collins said he expects the project to be completed in September 2029. EDITION is a Marriott brand.

“I think the settlement brings closure to both sides,” Collins told the Miami Herald.

Glen Waldman, an attorney who represented some of the holdouts, said that even though the residents won in court, they recognized they would still have a long legal battle ahead of them before they’d be able to move back into their units. He said they felt like it was time to “move forward and find a beautiful place to live.”

Condo terminations are a popular strategy for developers looking to build luxury condos on Miami’s coveted waterfront, where there’s little undeveloped land left. Developers typically set their sights on older buildings in prime locations.

But when residents who don’t want to sell push back, like they did in Biscayne 21, it can lead to years of conflict.

Two Roads bought up units in Biscayne 21 with plans to replace the mid-century condo with a new luxury high-rise. Biscayne 21, now an uninhabited shell, sits on a bayfront slice of Edgewater, a high-end residential neighborhood just north of downtown Miami. In the decades since Biscayne 21 was built, the area has been transformed by dozens of luxury condo towers.

The developer purchased a majority of Biscayne 21’s units in 2022 and took control of the building’s condo board. Biscayne 21’s declaration — the document that establishes the condominium — required a unanimous vote to terminate the building’s condo association, a goal that seemed unlikely with a group of residents refusing to sell.

So the developer-controlled condo board voted to lower the threshold to terminate to 80%, a move some residents believed was against the law.

The holdout residents sued Two Roads in May 2023. An appeals court judge ultimately sided with the residents, and the Florida Supreme Court declined to hear the case last October. A Miami-Dade judge ruled in January that the developer would have to restore the building — which it had begun to gut and dismantle — to the state it was in when residents sued. It seemed like the holdouts were going to get their units back.

The repairs would cost more than $60 million, which Two Roads would have to pay. The developer filed another suit in February, asking the court to terminate Biscayne 21’s condo association, allowing the developer to demolish the building, because of its state of disrepair.

Robert Murphy, one the plaintiffs in the suit, said his unit was gutted after he moved out. He was forced out of Biscayne 21 in September 2023, when the developer turned off the air conditioning. Since then, he dreamed of returning to his condo and sitting on his bayfront balcony. Murphy, a retired lawyer, has criticized what he sees as a lack of protections for condo owners in buildings targeted for termination.

Murphy knew it would likely be several years before he could move back into his unit. But after the judgment in January, he was “genuinely hopeful” he’d be able to move back in one day.

In an emailed statement to the Herald after the settlement was announced, Murphy said he eventually realized that a long road lay ahead, especially for some of his co-plaintiffs who he said were “living in distressed circumstances.”

The new suit filed by the developer earlier this year could have led to months or years more litigation. With this settlement, Two Roads’ suit is dismissed.

“I hated to give up my dream,” Murphy said, “but I think it was a rational moment for the group to settle.”