Burlington reaches $2M settlement with New Street condo owners

BURLINGTON — The city’s insurer has settled a lawsuit with residents of a condo building in Burlington that has been beset with structural problems.

“This settlement brings closure to a long and difficult chapter for the residents of 2411 New St.,” Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said in a news release Thursday.

“I’m thankful to all parties for working together to reach a settlement, so everyone can now move forward.”

Lawyers involved in the $2million settlement, which also includes four other defendants, are finalizing details to formally close the litigation.

The settlement, which the city says is not an “admission of liability” for any of the defendants, heads off a trial that was scheduled to start in January.

The condo owners alleged the city had been negligent in approving the construction of the apartment building in 1965 and its conversion to condos in 1998.

Residents say they didn’t know about structural problems in the building until a damning engilaunched neering report in 2009.

The city had insisted the sixstorey building was safe, and rejected any responsibility for its problems after the condo corporation launched a lawsuit in 2010.

In late 2017, renovations started on the building after the city reached a settlement with the condo corporation in that lawsuit.

However, a second lawsuit in 2011 by individual condo owners naming the city, developers, a real estate firm and engineers, remained active.

The Burlington firm leading that lawsuit acknowledged there had been a settlement but declined to immediately offer comment.