The changing Miami skyline

Remember those 2005-era animations of how the Miami skyline was expected to change over the next five or ten years given all the plans to build condos?

Well, it's not exactly working out the way many local real estate experts envisioned a few years back as indicated in this Bloomberg report, one in a long and growing list of stories that contain two important 2009-era words - "Trump" and "lawsuit".

Robert Cooper says he has found a way to make money in South Florida’s real estate bust.

Cooper, an attorney in Aventura, Florida, sues for refunds on deposits in the nation’s largest condominium market. In the last two years, he filed lawsuits for about 1,500 buyers against companies and individuals including the Related Group of Florida, Dezer Development LLC, Corus Bankshares Inc., Donald Trump.

More suits seeking refunds under a federal law regulating condo sales have been filed in South Florida than in the rest of the country combined, according to a search of federal court records. Fueling the litigation is a price crash that makes buyers unwilling to pour more money into bad investments -- even if they can get financing. Condos on which they made deposits of up to $1,000 a square foot in 2006 are now selling for $125 to $350 a foot, said Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

The story goes on at great length and is well worth reading in its entirety, the Trump lawsuits in Florida turning out to be like those elsewhere - charges of deceptive advertising that led investors to think that something more than the Trump name was involved.

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