Latta Pavilion Is Sick. Solving The Problem

March 21, 2008
Lynnsy Logue, The Real Estate Lady and CondoCanDo, Charlotte, NC

Chapter Two. Now you See It, Now You Don’t…
This may require several parts but I feel compelled to talk about what I have read and ultimately who I will talk to about this and what links I can provide you the reader, the listener, the real estate consumer. This is serious. It is Radon. I think I will simply publish the whole story as it appeared in the Business Journal. I have been waiting for a follow up from someone…a newspaper, a radio report, a television, but nothing as of this date.I am going to put this on my blog as well. And will do my best to follow this through. This addresses my core concern…public health, public safety, consumer awareness.I will present the whole article as it appeared on February 22, 2008. Counting this, here will be five parts:
1.Latta Pavilion Is Sick
2.Taking Measure
3.Solving The Problem
4.Still Selling
5.Getting a Read on Radon
Here goes:
Solving the problem
Grubb is involved in a mediation process with Rodgers Builders, the executive board of the Latta Pavilion Condominium Owners Association Inc. and the project's designer, Charlotte-based FMK Architects.
"We have consulted with numerous experts and coordinated professional tests of many units as well as overall airflow in the building," the homeowners association said in a statement sent to the Charlotte Business Journal this week. "Based on what the experts tell us, we believe the primary problem is insufficient airflow between the units and the outside environment."
Association member Buck Lawrimore, owner of a communications firm who is acting as the group's spokesman, declines to comment on the issue.
In the written statement, the association says it's working with Grubb and Rodgers Builders to find a solution. So far, the focus is on installing fans that would funnel the gas out of the building. The cost: $5,000 per unit, or $1.3 million.
Grubb pledges that tenants won't bear any of the expense, but it's not clear who will.
Grubb believes a faulty ventilation system designed by FMK is the cause of the radon problems.
Not so fast, says Allan McGuire, managing principal at the architectural firm. He says his company designed Latta Pavilion to meet the Charlotte-Mecklenburg building codes, and it was constructed accordingly. "Nothing is unique about the Latta Pavilion system that would allow it to contain radon over other systems we have done."
Fong says he's unaware of any similar problem in a building in Charlotte. He's seen a few cases of high readings in buildings in Gastonia and Cherryville where soil conditions are more conducive to creating radon emissions.
McGuire says Grubb is ultimately responsible for delivering a safe building.
Rodgers Builders executives did not return calls.
"It's a weird, perfect storm of strange occurrences that are causing this," says Sandy Kindbom, who heads the uptown office of Allen Tate Realtors. Tate is the primary sales representative for Latta Pavilion and 1315 East Blvd., which was converted to condos from apartments in 2005.
Caught up in that storm are condo owners such as Brian Cowman, who moved into his $370,000 Latta Pavilion unit a couple of months ago, before the radon issue came to light.
Cowman says he's not concerned about the short-term health impact. He is worried about the potential damage to the value of his unit. "If you have place one and place two and there is an issue at one, you are going to choose place two."
There are currently 22 units in Latta Pavilion and the adjacent 1315 East Blvd. building listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, with prices ranging from $194,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $610,000 for a two-bedroom penthouse.
While residents do have a justifiable concern about resale values, North Carolina is a "buyer beware" state, says Thomas Miller, general counsel for the N.C. Real Estate Commission in Raleigh.
The state's real estate license law imposes upon real estate agents the duty to disclose material facts about the properties they list. But those rules do not apply to the seller.
Next: Still selling