Biscayne 21 Settles After Three Years: What the Condo Termination Fight Teaches About Resolving Buyout Disputes

One of South Florida’s most closely watched condominium disputes has ended at the negotiating table. Two Roads Development settled with the holdout owners at Biscayne 21, the bayfront Edgewater building it bought into in 2022, and the deal closed on Monday, August 31, 2026 ¹. A source told The Real Deal that the developer paid about $50 million for the remaining units, and the resolution still needs court approval ¹. For counsel who handle association, redevelopment and real property disputes, the case is a useful study in how a contested termination can become far more expensive than the gap that started it.

How the dispute started

Biscayne 21 is a 192-unit building at 2121 North Bayshore Drive ¹. In 2022, an affiliate of Two Roads paid about $150 million for a majority of the units, financed in part by a senior loan from Bank OZK ¹. After buying units in bulk, the developer used its voting power to take control of the association board ³.

The 1974 declaration required the unanimous agreement of unit owners to terminate the condominium, and it required 100 percent approval for any amendment altering owners’ voting rights ³. In August 2022 the developer-controlled board amended the declaration to replace unanimity with the 80 percent statutory threshold, then approved a plan of termination over the objection of the remaining owners and conveyed the property, including their units, to the developer in December 2022 ³. Ten owners sued in 2023 ¹.

What the Third District decided

The trial court denied a temporary injunction, reasoning that changing the termination threshold did not affect voting rights ³. On rehearing in July 2025, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed. It held that an amendment changing the termination vote from 100 percent to 80 percent impacts the voting rights of the unit owners, because the original requirement gave each owner an effective veto ³. The court also found that the declaration’s general reference to the Condominium Act “as amended” was not Kaufman language that would automatically pull later statutory changes into the declaration ³. It remanded for entry of a temporary injunction and certified a question of great public importance to the Florida Supreme Court ³, which declined to hear the case in October 2025 ¹.

From there, the pressure shifted to the developer. In January 2026, a Miami-Dade circuit judge ordered the building restored to a habitable condition, including utilities such as air conditioning, water and electricity ¹. The developer then sued the holdouts in February seeking equitable relief that included terminating the association ¹. Meanwhile, the owners had lost access to their units when the building became uninhabitable in 2023 and had not been paid until the settlement closed ¹.

The cost of the gap

The most striking detail for anyone who resolves disputes for a living came from one of the holdouts. Robert H. Murphy, an attorney and unit owner, told The Real Deal that in early 2021 he asked for roughly a third more than he was offered, and that two owners never received a response ². In his view, the developer could have avoided the litigation by paying him and a neighbor a combined $600,000 to $700,000 above the bulk sale price ². The developer’s position is different: Taylor Collins of Two Roads called the settlement a relief and urged the Legislature to create “a clear, fair and predictable process” for terminating condominium associations ¹².

Whatever the merits, the arithmetic is hard to ignore. The developer carried millions of dollars in interest on its buyout financing while the case ran ¹, buyers of the planned project sued over their deposits ², and the holdouts had no access to their units from 2023 until the deal closed ¹. Their attorney, Glen Waldman, said the settlement gives his clients a better quality of life, noting they still faced years of litigation ².

Several lessons carry over to other buyout and termination disputes:

• Read the declaration before setting strategy. Biscayne 21 turned on specific unanimity and voting rights language and on the absence of Kaufman language ³.
• Engage holdouts early and in a structured setting. The reported price gap in 2021 was a small fraction of the eventual cost to both sides ¹².
• Treat an appellate ruling as a resolution point. Once the Third District ruled and the Supreme Court declined review, the leverage was clear, yet the parties still spent most of another year in litigation ¹.

Termination fights involve owners’ homes, lenders and construction timelines at once, which makes a neutral forum valuable well before the courthouse becomes the only option. Counsel looking for a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator for a condominium or association dispute can check Tony Roca’s live availability and book a mediation.