Take a walk down a block of Coconut Avenue and hear the ghostly silence. No children playing, no dogs barking, no neighbors grilling hamburgers. A dozen immaculate townhouses remain uninhabited three years after most were sold or double sold, triple sold and, in one case, quadruple sold to buyers duped by developer Doug Cox into believing they were weeks away from closing on their dream homes.
From outside, the houses appear hollow. But all 12 are saturated with deceit, consternation and heartbreak. They are for sale in Coconut Grove, one of the most desirable real estate markets in the country.
Someone will buy. Just not the people who were on the threshold of moving in. In a recent settlement of fraud accusations against Cox, 32 parties who are owed $34 million by have agreed to sign quitclaim deeds, relinquish any liens on the properties and surrender their goal of ownership.
They might recover 40 to 50 percent of the money they gave Cox if the 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot townhouses sell at their listed prices of $2.6 to $3.5 million.
“We lost, and the wrong people won,” said Kevin Ware, a Chicago transplant who expected to move into 2992 Coconut Ave. with his family in 2021 after putting down a $433,750 deposit on the $1.7 million townhouse.
Ware echoed other buyers who complain they were pressured into a settlement that favors deep-pocketed private lenders and investors who wanted to cash in on the booming Grove market touted by Cox. Miami’s oldest neighborhood is .