Article Courtesy of The Sun
Sentinel
By Brittany Wallman
Published April 5, 2010
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Waterfront buildings with condos that just
five years ago were outfitted with granite countertops and quickly snapped
up by dozens of investors stand vacant today, abandoned, and in ruins.
Hunks of countertops are scattered about.
Not a window or door remains.
Every shred of metal was a target for
looters. The walls are gaping where opportunists ripped in for copper
piping.
"It looks like Beirut out there,''
city building official Val Bohlander told elected officials.
The only resident is a homeless man living
in the stairwell.
A couch, clothes hangers, cans of food and
a 4-foot Winnie the Pooh are among the remnants of the community that
called this pocket along the north fork of the New River home.
Once they left, criminals loved the place
— so secluded, and empty, and open.
Fort Lauderdale
officials plan to make a dire move this summer, to
demolish all five buildings. The case will be taken to the
city's Unsafe Structures Board, which could order the the
buildings torn down.
Tucked in a corner of
riverfront land on a dead-end road, behind a funeral home,
New River Condos could be a public monument to the
foreclosure crisis. So many different owners, so many
foreclosures, so many banks.
And no one cares enough to
save it. Just about everyone walked away, city officials
said.
If it were still an
apartment complex, with one owner, rescuing it would be
easier.
But the four-decade-old
complex was renovated in 2005 and converted the next year
from rental to ownership. Investors were elated to find
waterfront condos for $150,000 or less. |
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Joseph
and Craig Lewis, brothers who work for Vacant Property Security,
board up the New River Condominium with steel doors. For the past
six months, the city of Fort Lauderdale has been trying to secure
the New River Condominiums at 500 NW 24 Ave. because it's been a
magnet for crime.
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All told, 53 purchasers bought
the 58 riverfront condos on Northwest 24th Avenue, off Sistrunk Boulevard in
northwest Fort Lauderdale.
City officials said the "overwhelming
majority'' are in foreclosure; most owners were investors, they said.
"When the market took a dive, it was one
of those things that there was no tie to it other than a financial
investment,'' City Commissioner Bobby DuBose said.
There has been no running water there in a
year.
The city has been after the condo association
in code enforcement court for twice that long.
The condo association is defunct now, the
city attorney said, so the city has to send violation notices to individual
owners.
Last month, the city paid to cover the gaping
windows and doors with inpenetrable metal shutters, leasing them for $27,653
for three months. The city already spent $26,697 clearing out garbage,
mowing and twice boarding the condos with plywood. Both times, the boards
were ripped off.
"We have to take it out of the danger
zone, if you will,'' Bohlander told commissioners. "We have to secure
that building. It's frightening to ride back in there.''
Mayor Jack Seiler asked whether the city could save
money by fencing the property instead.
"We tried that,'' Bohlander replied. The fence
was "mowed down'' by vandals, she said.
Shawn Oliver, 38, who was living in the stairwell this
month, said the place is so dark and deserted at night that he can't
persuade other homeless people to stay there with him.
If the land is sold, the city will try to get its
money back, plus the estimated $150,000 cost for demolition.
In the coming three months, the city will send notices
to the owners, giving them opportunities to appear at public hearings.
However, tearing down the buildings appears to be the
best possible ending, Bohlander told city elected officials.
Neighborhoods across Broward County have been crippled
by foreclosures. Broward had the state's third-highest foreclosure rate in
February.
Also foreboding: A California research firm reported
in March that more than half the residential mortgage holders in Broward
County owe more than their property is worth.
At the complex earlier this month, Joseph and Craig
Lewis, 21- and 23-year-old brothers working for Vacant Property Security
Inc. of Miami, worked for two weeks putting up the metal shutters.
The parking lot was littered: a bus schedule, sofa
cushion and extra-large black T-shirt, a black velour jacket, for example.
Inside one condo, a silver, artificial Christmas tree was knocked over. The
unit had been gutted.
A slow but steady flow of traffic appeared on the
dead-end road: a sheriff's deputy, and a potential investor who had flown in
from New Jersey, among them.
The deputy was checking to see who was at the complex.
The potential investor had heard the complex was condemned and city-owned,
and wanted to buy it. But he left for the Elbo Room when he found out there
were scores of owners.
With
the ownership such a mess, he said, it's not worth trying to save.
Condo
Complex Abandoned After Foreclosures Hit
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