Colors by Batistella

[is300izo]

I am not sure if anyone has heard of this project but my friend is building a condo unit in this tower and has ran into a problem with the builder. The builder has asked all of the purchasers who purchased prior to Jan 06 to repurchase their suits at a higher per\sq price wich makes the suit cost the buyers approx another $80k. The dilemma is that even at this price, the buyers are still up quite a bit of cash since they purchased a a low price but regardless is this legal? I know that others have tried this and coincidentally have had their projects cancelled cause of lack of funding. As far as I know, there is nothing in the contract stating that they can resell units for higher pricing and basically the builder is stating that if buyers do not agree to the new terms, that the project will be terminated due to lack of funding. I heard that something like this happened with Skytower and they tried to cancel the project but the buyers threatened to file a lawsuit agains the builder. Any info\experience is appreciated.

[HRD2PLZ]

There has been lots of projects that this has happened to. We had purchased a unit in Union Square which got refunded "Due to City Zoning problems." Gateway Mid-Town refunded deposits and re-sold them at a 30-40% premium.

[adamc]

that is some bulllllllll shit

[bigboom]

its happened everywhere in the city...and yes it is legal if you read the contract.

[TDA]

He should be lucky the builder didn't pull the carpet out of under him...

+1 for being screwed by Apex (union square). Me too.

[black_2.5RS]

Very legal and unfortunately becoming very common. Your friend should read the contract and see if they can do this increase more than once. I read in the paper re: gateway downtown that particular builder can only do this once and forfeits the ability to ask for more later on.....however, I believe this is builder to that specific.

If there is no provision regarding the number of times they can increase prices, it might be wise to re-think this purchase...since this price increase will put them even with today's prices anyways.

Just my 0.02.

[is300izo]

thanks for the info guys, actually we have showed the contract to the lawywers and the weird thing is that there is no clause in this contract stating that the can increase the price or that they have the option to re-write the contract. As per the builder they have already had 70 buyers take take the new contract wich generated the builder enough capital the make the project a go. We figure that if 70 people went through with it that at least half of them consulted a lawyer who told them that it was the way to go.

[sputnik]

Anyone who buys a condo at the groundbreaking and thinks that they will keep it at that price are going to get a rude wake up call.

Almost all condo buildings are being "cancelled" and then restarted at a higher rate per sq ft.

Deal with it. Or buy a house.

[black_2.5RS]

Originally posted by sputnik
Anyone who buys a condo at the groundbreaking and thinks that they will keep it at that price are going to get a rude wake up call.

Almost all condo buildings are being "cancelled" and then restarted at a higher rate per sq ft.

Deal with it. Or buy a house.

True, the time to build a high rise condo vs. a house can be sometimes several months to year(s) longer. The risk that the price increases over that time is so much bigger with high rises - hence what we are seeing at Colors, Gateway, etc.

I thought about buying into the new Keynote property downtown but got scared away with the huge increases builders are demanding. I'm going to buy an older condo or a house instead.