BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A new civil case in Palm Beach County Circuit Court accuses the developer behind Boca Raton’s Tower 105 Residences and its escrow agent of wrongfully holding onto more than half a million dollars in buyer deposits for a unit that never closed.
The lawsuit is filed as One Polo Creek III, LLC v. Via Mizner Owner III, LLC, a foreign Limited Liability Co., and First American Title Insurance Company, Case No. 50-2025-CA-012762-XXXX-MB, in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida. The complaint was e-filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court on December 9, 2025, at 2:23 p.m.
Plaintiff One Polo Creek III, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company, alleges it contracted in February 2022 to buy Unit 1012 at Tower 105 Residences, a Condominium, a project also marketed as The Residences at Mandarin Oriental – Boca Raton, being developed by Via Mizner Owner III, LLC in Boca Raton. The purchase price was set at $5.1 million, with an initial ten-percent deposit of $510,000 due at signing and a later options addendum in September 2023 adding $19,448 in upgrades, bringing total deposits to $529,448.
Under the purchase agreement drafted by the developer, the estimated completion and delivery date for the unit was September 2022. The contract further provided that the unit “shall be completed and delivered to Buyer within three (3) years after the Estimated Completion Date,” which the complaint calculates as a mandatory outside closing deadline of September 30, 2025.
According to the complaint, no closing occurred by that date and, as of September 30, 2025, “the entire condominium project remained far from complete.”
The buyer’s lawyers state that on October 23, 2025, they sent written notice declaring Via Mizner in default, terminating the purchase agreement, and demanding a return of the full deposit with interest. The pleading alleges the developer did not respond and did not refund the money.
The filing also details how the deposit funds moved. The complaint alleges that, consistent with section 718.202(1), Florida Statutes, One Polo Creek’s deposits were placed with First American Title Insurance Company under an escrow agreement dated November 7, 2017, later amended in 2019. It states First American ultimately disbursed the entire $529,448 to the developer, including $17,503 under construction-cost provisions and the remaining $510,000 after Via Mizner obtained an $18 million Escrow Deposit Surety Bond (No. K41818670) issued by Federal Insurance Company and approved by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation as “other assurance” for the project. A November 3, 2025 letter from First American attached to the lawsuit confirms that it holds a $0.00 escrow balance for this buyer.
In Count I (Breach of Purchase Agreement), the plaintiff alleges Via Mizner breached the contract by failing to complete, deliver, and close on Unit 1012 by September 30, 2025 and by refusing to return the deposit after written demand. One Polo Creek claims it has suffered monetary damages including the loss of its $529,448 deposit and related interest, and seeks return of those funds, additional damages, prejudgment interest, and attorneys’ fees under the agreement.
In Count II (Violation of Florida Statute §718.202), the buyer alleges that its October 23, 2025 notice both terminated and voided the purchase agreement and triggered a statutory right to a refund of all deposits plus interest at the highest rate paid on savings accounts by local savings and loan associations. The complaint claims Via Mizner’s failure to return the money violated Florida’s condominium escrow statute and that, as a result, the contract is void and the buyer is entitled to a full refund with interest.
Count III (Declaratory Relief) is directed at both Via Mizner and First American. The plaintiff alleges there is a present dispute over whether it may terminate the purchase agreement and recover its deposit; whether First American, as escrow agent and an obligee on the surety bond, is authorized or obligated to make a claim on the bond for the benefit of buyers; and how the parties’ rights and duties under the purchase agreement, escrow agreement, bond, and Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes should be interpreted. The complaint asks the court to declare the developer in default, confirm the buyer’s right to an immediate refund of the $529,448 deposit with interest, and rule that First American is empowered and/or obligated to demand bond proceeds and remit them to the buyer.
The suit is brought on behalf of One Polo Creek III, LLC by Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, with attorney James T. Ferrara listed as counsel of record in the signature block.
Exhibits to the complaint also reference Rennert Vogel Mandler & Rodriguez, P.A. in Miami in connection with correspondence regarding the developer and the state’s approval of the surety bond.
The original document, as filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be viewed here.
