Winter Park Townhomes Win $26.5M Defect Settlement, $2.65M a Door

The Park Hill Owners Association has settled a construction-defect lawsuit against the developer and contractors behind its 10-unit luxury townhome complex on Park Avenue in Winter Park for $26.5 million, roughly $2.65 million per unit, according to a settlement announcement from plaintiffs’ firm Pursiano. The two-building community was completed in 2019 at a construction cost of about $15 million, meaning the payout is nearly double what it cost to build.

Why it matters

Per-unit defect payouts at this scale reset how builders and their insurers price risk on small luxury projects, not just condo towers. RLH Construction built five of the townhomes under a $13.8 million contract completed in 2018, and Cadell Construction finished the remaining units in 2019. Plaintiffs alleged defective stone and masonry veneer attachment that compromised the water-resistant barrier, waterproofing failures at windows and building envelopes, and undersized HVAC systems and ductwork that produced humidity and mold issues. The case drew 28 named defendants and more than 45 law firms before it resolved, the scale of litigation that is now standard on any Florida project where an association can show water intrusion.

The numbers

The settlement totals $26.5 million against a 10-unit complex, or about $2.65 million a door, against an original build cost near $15 million. Residents began flagging humidity, condensation and early water intrusion by 2021, two years after the second building was finished, and the case was filed in 2023 following a forensic investigation. That timeline, defects surfacing two years after closing and litigation running roughly three more years to settlement, is the exposure window builders and their carriers now have to underwrite on every job, not just this one.

What’s next

We reported in July that South Florida design professionals are being priced out of condo work as owner and contractor-controlled insurance has climbed from 1% to 2% of project cost to 7%, largely from the same defect-litigation pipeline Chapter 558 was meant to shortcut. A $2.65 million-per-unit result on a 10-unit project in Central Florida, well outside the South Florida condo corridor covered on our national desk, argues that pricing pressure is not a Miami-only phenomenon, and carriers underwriting the next Florida luxury for-sale project will be pricing this settlement in.