All those civic activists fighting suburban sprawl didn't have to wait long for instant suburbs to turn to goop on a bank's balance sheet, then to gorp on a distant investor's portfolio, then to a nightmare on not-so-Main Street. It happened in the blink of an eye, in real time, leaving the lobbyists and engineers for sprawl blinking in the naked daylight, as all their clients faded away, nursing their losses. I'm glad the local CBS affiliate produced the following story but have a question: where was CBS (and Fox, NBC, ABC, and CNN for that matter) when civic activists were running protests against unsustainable development in downtown Miami for the past decade and you wouldn't even send a TV crew and camera down to do the story? Too afraid of rubbing your automobile advertisers, the wrong way? Click more for the whole story.
Jan 14, 2009 10:38 am US/Eastern
Developer's Disaster Causes Modern Ghost Town
The Developer Places Blame On Regions Bank
Florida Keys Townhomes Only Has 10 Sold Homes
Developer's Office Shut The Door On CBS4 Investigative Producer
FLORIDA CITY (CBS4) ―
At the end of Florida's Turnpike, you'll see the advertisements for Florida Keys Townhomes. They showcase happy families living in bargain-priced homes. In reality, the development is a modern-day ghost town.
It's the size of 70-football fields. A brand new South Florida housing development that had more than 600 promised units. After the first ten were sold, the bank foreclosed on the company leaving only 70 units built and plenty of empty land. It didn't take long for the Florida City development to be transformed into a modern ghost town. The handful of homeowners felt abandoned by the U.S. Postal Service; who wouldn't deliver their mail, and two police agencies who couldn't find the unfinished development in their computer systems.
An American dream was turned into a nightmare when a bank took over the "Floridian Key" development before it was complete. Hundreds of houses were supposed to be built along Northeast Second Street, next to the Prime Outlets in Florida City. Only a small number of them were ever finished.
The community looks great from the outside. But on the inside, it's a pre-construction nightmare. Amid the billboards that showcase happy families living in bargain-priced townhomes, there are rows of empty townhouses that sit on blocks of paved roads that are devoured by weeds.
"It's a little frustrating and depressing to see it like this." When Jorge Pichardo and his girlfriend bought the home, they were excited about all the pre-construction plans. "A basketball court, pool, barbeque pits, playground," he ticked off.
"My wife is scared, and we just had a baby boy," said Gabriel Campos, another resident at the complex.
The couple moved in, only to find out in the most unexpected place that Regions Bank was foreclosing on the property. "When my wife went to City Hall to do the water, the clerk there said, 'Did you know that they're in foreclosure?' That's how we found out," Jorge said.
The developer is now long gone. Of the 614 promised units, only 70 were ever built. And only ten units were ever sold.
When CBS4 News tried to visit the developer's office on Tuesday we got the cold shoulder.
"I can give you the phone number," said one man to CBS4 I-Team Producer Gio Benitez, as he walked into the offices, but instead he just shut the door so we couldn't go inside. Someone else told us that the owners, Antonio and Armando Alonso, were in a meeting.
The CBS4 I-Team finally visited the Alonso's $2 million estate in Kendall and got a hold of Antonio Alonso through the call box outside.
"You should call Regions because they took over," said Antonio Alonso.
When asked what he would tell to the buyers who were left high and dry he said, "I say that we tried to do everything we could, but Regions wouldn't allow us to step into the project."
Those ten owners have a massive problem on their hands. Looking past the fact that nobody would buy or rent those homes, the fact of the matter is that to many, they don't exist at all. The U.S. Postal Service won't deliver mail that far. There are no street lights, and thieves have been ransacking houses for appliances.
"We called the Florida City Police; they couldn't find us in the system. They transferred us to Homestead Police. Homestead couldn't find us. We got transferred to Miami-Dade police. Miami-Dade finally said, 'You know what? This address and this zip code actually belongs to Florida City."
The Florida City police finally found them, more than two hours later. Now, residents are thankful to see officers patrolling the residents. "I'm really worried about the residents. My job is just to keep them safe, 'cuz they're out here by themselves. Like you say, there's no lights here; it's dark out here," said Florida City Officer James Butts. "So I make sure the officers are coming out here."
"It's pretty much unchartered territory," said Real Estate Attorney Michelle Gonzalez Torres. She believes residents might have a case against the developer, especially if he sold the properties and didn't disclose they were in foreclosure.
However, she says that they have a better chance of getting their lender to lower their payments.
"That particular lender is not gonna want to foreclose on these individual homeowners because they don't want to buy into a problem," said Torres.
"We're paying. We can pay," Jorge told CBS4 Reporter David Sutta. "The thing is that we didn't foreclose. The developers foreclosed." The Pichardo family, expecting a baby in just two weeks, and their neighbors are all stuck paying the price for a developer's disaster.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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