Residents of the storied Mutiny hotel and condominium building on South Bayshore Drive are divided once again over a developer’s unsolicited buyout proposal – the third such proposal since late 2024.
Emerging as the sole bidder for the Mutiny hotel and condominium, developer BH Group is presenting buyout offers to unit owners with an eye toward redeveloping the landmark Coconut Grove property on South Bayshore Drive.
BH Group held a meeting with owners earlier this month to discuss its plans to purchase the property for approximately $160 million, according to condo board leader Mayra Gomez and others.
Among other takeaways, Gomez said, the developer is planning to build a new, luxury condominium complex, and seeking to secure purchase contracts for at least 140 units to move forward with the redevelopment.
“BH came in and is making individual offers to all unit owners, one by one,” Gomez told the Spotlight.
The unsolicited buyout proposal – the third since late 2024 – has divided unit owners, some of whom say they aren’t interested in selling.
“We don’t want to move,” said Alyn Pruett, an architect who lives in the building. “Regardless of what the offer is, it will never be enough to buy another place in the Grove.”
Pruett said there’s a difference of opinion even among those unit owners who are willing to entertain a buyout offer – including those who bought for investment and don’t live in the building. Some would-be sellers say the offer isn’t rich enough.
As owners weigh their options, it’s not clear whether BH Group will be able to muster the support it needs to take control of the building.
Under Florida law, termination of a condominium – a prerequisite to redevelopment – requires 80 percent approval from owners, weighted by voting interest.
However, the law allows just five percent of voting interests to halt the process by objecting through written opposition or a vote.
Gomez said several unit owners have agreed to sales contracts with BH Group – which she characterized as a quick uptake. The board is polling residents on their willingness to sell, she noted. As of Sunday, the results of the poll were unknown, Pruett said.
Greg Greer, sales agent for BH Group, told the Spotlight that other developers’ buyout proposals at the Mutiny were previously scuttled by problems obtaining financing, and that BH Group is now the only developer actively pursuing a buyout of the Mutiny. He claimed BH Group is equipped to push the purchase across the finish line.
“The buyer has the wherewithal to close the deal, and we believe it’s a good offer,” Greer said. “We’ve had a positive response from the owners.”
Built in 1968 by developer Burton Goldberg as an apartment building, the property was converted to a hotel in the mid-1970s and became the epicenter of Miami’s party scene.
Hollywood A-listers and rock stars gathered at the world-famous Mutiny Club onsite, while the hotel doubled as headquarters for drug dealers whose wealth was fueled by the cocaine boom. The property was the inspiration behind the “Babylon Club” scenes in the movie “Scarface.”
These days, the building operates as a condominium and hotel with roughly 170 units. Some are available to guests through a hotel program managed by Provident Resorts, while others are traditional condos rented or occupied by owners.
According to Greer, the prices BH is offering individual owners are based on their relative ownership laid out in the Mutiny’s condominium documents, which assign higher ownership stakes to larger units and those with views of Biscayne Bay.
Basing purchase offer prices on the ownership stakes laid out in the condo documents may simplify negotiations, as debate previously arose among owners over the extent to which penthouses and units with bay views should command a premium price.
“There’s always kind of a gray area with condominium buyouts. The guy that lives in the waterfront unit says he’s got the best view, yet the guy in the back says he just redid his unit like the Taj Mahal and deserves more,” Greer said.
“In this particular building, the condo docs have a percentage-of-ownership scale, and that’s what our sale price is based on. In some buildings, they don’t have that.”
Since late 2024, owners in the 12-story building have become familiar with the condominium buyout process and the tension it can generate among residents.
Earlier buyout offers came in from DaGrosa Capital and then Slate Property Group, neither of which came to fruition.
Now, a third suitor has stepped forward, and unit owners who don’t want to sell are once again facing the potential loss of their home.
“It gets to be a little stressful, honestly,” Pruett said. “Just the uncertainty swirling around it (the buyout offer). It’s no fun.”
Gomez said the mood at the buyout-proposal meeting earlier this month was calm and that owners are taking a more calculated approach after the last two deals failed to close.
“I don’t know which way it’s going to go. It’s up in the air,” she said.
