Basically the construction of the Hilton condos is not up to the residents standards, there is water leaks and noise pollution. These affect a select few condos in the lower levels of the building. I think the 2 issues that transpired to get to this situation:
1. I always thought it was weird they had condo floors in between the hotel floors. When I toured the units I thought all the ones that were sandwiched with the hotel were just odd and I didn't like it. its poor design.
2. The building was built by a not for profit partnership between the city and builders, and was thus built to the lowest bidder, which may be fine for a rental building or affordable housing, but when you are purporting to be a luxury product that doesn't cut it. I don't know any other luxury products built by not for profit companies to the lowest bidder. Its just an irreconcilable difference.
Also what does this mean for other buildings? particularly hotel branded condos? Well the Four Seasons condos are a completely separate building from the Four Seasons hotel, they only share staff and the complex, so there is little chance noise pollution or high volume hotel services causing a nusicanse. As for the W Hotel, it has all the hotel services on the lower floors and condos on upper floors with zero exceptions, they actually have a transition floor to help separate the two. Both buildings were built FOR profit and the city had little to no involvement. (they sold the developers the land for the W and possibly made some height variances for the two, but that is nothing out of the ordinary.)
In all this does not look like it has the chance of spreading beyond this one building, yet it could put a halt on all sales in the building especially on floors where there is pending litigation. It will lower the value of the 555 condos,at least until litigation is settled. This will also boost the value of all the other downtown condos as the supply of condos in buildings without pending lawsuits just went down.
Here are the important parts of the article.
http://www.statesman.com/business/condo-...hoddy-construction-at-hilton-681176.html
Quote:
Condo owners' lawsuits allege shoddy construction at Hilton
By Marty Toohey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 10:53 p.m. Monday, May 10, 2010
In the basement garage of the Hilton Austin hotel, discolored streaks trace the path of water that seeps from cracks in the wall into cracks in the floor. The wall has become an emblem of sorts for apparent structural problems and mounting legal issues facing the downtown hotel, a 7-year-old facility the city government had built to boost tourism.
The matter also raises questions about the contractor chosen for the project and the complicated financing scheme that will leave the city the Hilton Austin's owner. For nearly three years, an assistant city manager has been fielding complaints from condo owners about leaks and noise.
The legal battles are happening on two fronts. One involves seven condo owners who say the city allowed shoddy construction that ruined their $500,000-plus investments. One owner, Winston Ku, a classically trained singer with an Oxford law degree, claims that frequent leaks and mold in the ceiling have made his two fifth-floor units uninhabitable and that the same thing is happening in a ninth-floor unit he bought last year.
The city hired Hilton to run the 800-room hotel, which opened in December 2003. The city owns 74.41 percent of the space inside the building, according to Austin Convention Enterprises. Condo owners collectively own 22.68 percent of the space. Another 2.91 percent is commercial space owned by Neches Street Partners.
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