Prive condominium breaks ground with lawsuit pending

The Prive at Island Estate condominium project in Aventura has broken ground, even as a lawsuit from neighboring homeowners aims to halt the project.

Developers Gary Cohen and BH3 are building 160 units at 5000 Island Boulevard, which is a private island in Dumfoundling Bay connected to the mainland by a bridge. That bridge runs through a smaller island of single-family homes.

Prive will have units from 2,585 to 9,000 square feet. Amenities will include a gym and spa in each of the two towers, restaurants, a marina, a man-made beach, wine and cigar rooms, tennis courts, pools and walking trails.

Prices start at $1.7 million

The general contractor is Suffolk Construction. The foundation work started in April. On June 26, the foundation and podium for the parking garage began construction. Vertical construction for the two 16-story towers should begin later this year as the developers aim to finish Prive by mid 2017.

A group of homeowners on the neighboring island filed a lawsuit against the Prive developers seeking to halt the project. The homeowners want to deny the developers permission to build a sidewalk across their lawns and they allege that the sidewalk is required by a city agreement to be completed before work on Prive can begin. The homeowners failed to win an injection to stop construction, but on May 27 a Miami-Dade County court denied the Prive developers’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The developers filed a motion for summary judgement in the case and that is pending. The neighboring homeowners want to take the case to trial.

Homeowners David and Dara Clarke were arrested in February for allegedly damaging the sidewalk that the Prive developers built in front of their homes. Those charges were later dropped.

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Story by: Brian Bandell – Jun 29, 2015, 6:00am EDT
Photo Courtesy: Biz Journals

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