Frank Scala and his wife, Nancy Scala, say they paid nearly $1.3 million after agreeing to buy a new condo in 2021 at the planned Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences in Boca Raton. Now, more than three years later, they’re among people suing after delays in the Mandarin residence’s completion, court records show.
Some condo buyers expected the project to be done, and the delays have now led them to ask for their deposits to be returned, the records show. “We’re kind of in limbo,” Frank Scala said. “They’ve got $1.
3 million of my money over there, and they haven’t performed.” Robert Sweetapple, an attorney representing Via Mizner Owner III LLC, which is associated with the entire resident, retail, hotel and restaurant project, said the contracts illustrate that the estimated date of the project’s completion would be subject to change. “Everyone understood that this was going to be a complicated, long process, and that the date was estimated, and the estimated date would change,” Sweetapple said, adding: “This was so broad to protect the developer.
” In response, the people behind The Residences at Mandarin Oriental noted how some customers are OK with a projected 2025 completion date, with one buyer recently telling the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “it’s worth waiting for in my book.” Albert Piazza, the executive vice president of development for Penn-Florida Companies, the group behind the project, said the residences and hotel will be compl.