After no other bids were submitted by the Friday evening deadline for next week’s auction, billionaire developer Hussain Sajwani is set to buy the site of a South Florida condominium that collapsed last June for $120 million.
Hundreds of potential buyers expressed interest in the property, according to Avison Young’s Michael Fay, but none were willing to match Sajwani’s initial bid. Avison Young is a commercial real estate firm that was hired as part of a class-action lawsuit to market the property.
The 1.8-acre (0.72-hectare) parcel in Surfside will be auctioned on Tuesday. Families of the victims reached a $997 million settlement earlier this month with local officials, the developers of an adjacent building, and others they hold responsible for the June 24 collapse of the 40-year-old, 12-story beachside building.
The majority of the Champlain Towers South collapsed at 1:20 a.m. on June 24, while most of the residents were sleeping. Only three people were alive when the building collapsed. Despite rescuers digging through a 40-foot (12-meter) pile of rubble around the clock for two weeks, no other survivors were discovered. Another three dozen people were inside the building’s still-standing portion.
The cause of the collapse is being investigated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is expected to take years.
