When Thompson Whitney Blake set his sights on Charleston’s Dockside complex, he came with cash — and conviction.
Now, he’s coming with a lawsuit.
The Florida investor, who bid $30 million to buy the evacuated waterfront property, is suing CBRE, the commercial real estate firm hired to market the site. His complaint, filed Oct. 9 in federal court: the firm listed his condo, Unit 7A, without permission or a written agreement.
“These guys should not be representing the whole building down at city hall, talking about entitlements and zoning,” Blake told The Post and Courier.
Through his company, Domino LLC, Blake bought the 7th-floor unit in July and has been on a mission to purchase the entire 3.3-acre property ever since. But his lawsuit now pits him against the very process he hoped would seal the deal.
The building that emptied out
Dockside’s story has been a slow-motion crisis. In February, the city ordered residents to evacuate the 133-unit tower over structural concerns.
By August, owners voted not to repair the building — a $151 million job that would have cost more than $1 million per unit. What they didn’t vote on: selling it. Under South Carolina law, every single owner must agree to sell before a deal can happen. That vote hasn’t happened yet.
Still, the Dockside board moved forward, retaining CBRE’s Michael Carmody to market the property. Blake says that’s where they crossed the line.
The cease-and-desist
His lawyer, Ian Ford of Ford Wallace in Charleston, sent CBRE a cease-and-desist letter asking them to remove his condo from marketing materials. “We sent them emails. We called. Our lawyers noticed them,” Blake said. “These brokers refused to hit the brakes.”
CBRE declined to comment on the pending suit.
Dockside’s general manager, Lizzy DeLorme, alerted owners in an Oct. 11 email that the lawsuit could delay marketing and hurt the property’s value. “We are certain that this lawsuit will delay the marketing of our property, costing us time — and money,” she wrote.
What happens now
Blake says he just wants to move things along. “I care as much as they care,” he said.
But federal cases can take months, even years, to untangle. And until the Dockside legal dust settles, the city’s most-watched waterfront property sale is on hold.
“Charleston is a small town,” Blake said. “I’m not from Charleston — so I don’t have to be worried about being pushed around.”
