Holdout widow settles with Westgate Resorts for sale of condo
Orlando Sentenial
Stephen Hudak
03 November 2017
Construction continues on Westgate Resorts tower which looms behind the
remains of Julieta Mejia de Corredor's condominum near the Orange
County Convention Center. (Stephen Hudak / Orlando Sentinel)
Julieta Meija de Corredor and her family stopped using their Orlando vacation villa years ago.
They had once enjoyed the tennis courts, trees and pool at the vacation
community on Big Sand Lake, which was close to SeaWorld Orlando,
Universal and the Orange County Convention Center.
Those amenities were long gone when the family’s trouble began with
Westgate Resorts, the timeshare giant that needed the Corredors’ sliver
of land as part of project to build a pair of $20-million high-rise
rental towers.
But they refused to sell — until now. The South Florida widow and
Westgate struck a deal during a recent mediation in which she and her
sons agreed to sell the property and bring an end to a legal saga.
“We’re relieved for Ms. Corredor and the Corredor family that these
issues are finally resolved,” said the Corredors’ lawyer, Brent Siegel,
no relation to billionaire David A. Siegel, CEO and president of
Westgate.
The deal was struck during court-directed mediation, Siegel said. Terms were unavailable because of a nondisclosure clause.
Westgate attorney Michael Marder confirmed Friday the parties had
reached an accord but offered no other comment or details.
The settlement clears the way for Westgate to resolve a related dispute
with county building officials who had refused to issue required
certificates of occupancy for the eight-story tower, which has been
empty for four months.
Though the building had passed inspections, Westgate couldn’t lease
units in the tower in Orlando’s tourist district. A lawyer for the
company once said the county’s denial of occupancy permits was costing
Westgate’s parent company Central Florida Investments thousands of
dollars a day.
Westgate is likely to now be granted permits from the county to build a
second $20 million tower on the same site. The condo stood in the way
of Westgate’s development plans, though the company decided to build
around Corredor .
The widow, now 83, and her late husband bought the Orlando vacation
home in 1985 for $154,000, paid its taxes and other property fees for
three decades, then watched as Westgate gobbled up neighboring units
when the properties fell into foreclosure.
Court records show Westgate sent the Corredor family offers for the unit as far back as 2004.
The matriarch, now a widow, always said no.
About two years ago, a contractor with a bulldozer and no permit carved
away a piece of the Corredor unit by mistake, making it unsafe for
habitation, according to Orange County code enforcement. The Corredors
suspected the damage was deliberate.
The county said Westgate misrepresented that it owned the Corredors’ unit in its plans for the twin timeshare towers.
Though it was never the family’s permanent home, the modest condo
served as a place for a weekend getaways, theme-park vacations and
family gatherings for 30 years.
“However we use it shouldn’t matter,” William Corredor once said. “It’s ours.”
After negotiations failed to persuade the widow and her sons to sell, Westgate officials labeled them as “greedy.”
The widow's vacation townhouse, shown under a green shroud, is dwarfed
by Westgate Resorts' $20-million timeshare rental tower. Westgate had
been unable to open the tower to tenants because of disputes with the
widow and Orange County. The widow's dispute is resolved now. (Stephen
Hudak/Orlando Sentinel)
Westgate executives said they offered the widow $150,000 for her condo, which is shrouded by a green covering.
She said no.
They offered her a newer unit in another building.
She said no again.
Neither the Corredors nor their lawyer ever publicly disclosed their demands for the condo.
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