The Club at Brickell Bay Plaza, a 43-story residential high-rise located in Miami’s Brickell financial district, walked away with a “Comeback Kid” award during the 2014 Florida Communities of Excellence, held on Friday, May 2 in Orlando, FL.
These annual awards serve as a recognition program to shine a spotlight on positive and productive initiatives that condominiums, homeowners associations and cooperatives statewide have implemented. “The Comeback Kid” award is presented to communities whose boards and managers have developed successful turnaround programs to revitalize distressed properties, and is a nod to the board and management of The Club at Brickell Bay for its efforts in revamping their troubled community.
For years, The Club at Brickell Bay Plaza was reputed as an epicenter for real estate speculators seeking large returns quickly in the Brickell area. The ensuing mortgage crisis caused the community to rapidly decline as over a third of these speculators abandoned their units, and it experienced a slew of financial and legal challenges. In 2012, The Club at Brickell Bay’s Board of Directors teamed up with FirstService Residential – its then new property management company – to assist in setting the community’s affairs in order.
“The Club had the largest outstanding receivables in South Florida, the greatest number of squatters we had ever seen,
and a long history of instability due to a high turnover rate of board members and staff,” said Edwin Lugo, Vice President of FirstService Residential. “The Board is due all the credit for restoring The Club at Brickell Bay back to its former glory. They proved to be a cohesive and encouraging partner and were open to our ideas and recommendations.”
Today, The Club at Brickell Bay Plaza is on a firm financial footing. “The Club at Brickell Bay was infamous in our area for its many problems, and we are pleased to be able to say that our situation has improved dramatically,” said Julius Barbat, President of the Board of Directors of The Club at Brickell Bay Plaza. “We are very proud to have been honored by the condominium association community with this prestigious award. The Club at Brickell Bay has truly come full circle.”
About The Florida Communities of Excellence Awards
The Florida Communities of Excellence Awards is a unique program that recognizes positive and productive initiatives taking place in condominiums, homeowners associations and cooperatives across Florida. Now in its sixth year, the independently judged program enables the top communities in the state to promote their accomplishments and raise their profiles while documenting their successes and enabling others to learn from their examples. For more information, please visit www.communitiesofexcellence.net.
About FirstService Residential
FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a global leader in the rapidly growing real estate services sector, one of the largest markets in the world. As the largest residential property manager in North America, FirstService Residential oversees more than 6,500 residential and commercial associations including 1.5 million residential units and over 50 million square feet of commercial space across 21 U.S. states and three provinces in Canada. The company has more than 12,000 employees driving local market expertise and managing in excess of $6 billion in annual budgets. For more information, visit www.fsresidential.com.
