A Rental Nightmare

By Michael Finch II

mfinch@MiamiHerald.com

It never seemed possible until the landlord came to deliver the grim news.
The place the Olivo family called home, a three-bedroom townhouse in Davie, had been sold and they needed to find a new place to live.
But putting aside money for the family of four to move was a problem for Lissette Olivo.
“Everything happened so fast,” she said. “I didn’t have time to save money to get my own place.”
Her job, helping people create resumes and cover letters at an employment agency, does not bring in enough cash to pay the first and last month’s rent and security deposit landlords demand.
Not even the personal finance classes she attends could prepare Olivo, 37, to fill the financial gap.
During the past five years, Lissette Olivo and her children Alejandro Olivo, 10, and Adrian Olivo, 15, Adonis Olivo, 18, and Ashley Suarez, 21, created a life in their home on Live Oak Place in Davie.
This summer, she took in her niece Stephanie Sanchez, 17, who’d been having trouble with her parents.
But with their rental sold and no place else for them to go, friend Elizabeth Berrios invited them to move into her two-bedroom mobile home in Davie.
“When my mom died, she made sure I had somewhere to go,” explained Berrios. Now it was Berrios’ turn to return the favor.
Despite the cramped quarters, the friends make it work.
“There is no other alternative,” Berrios pointed out.
The move uprooted Adrian and Stephanie from Western High School, where Adrian ran track and played football.
Now they attend McArthur High in Hollywood.
“Some of the school work seems a little bit harder,” Adrian said. “I’m working now to catch up.”
Now, they both attend McArthur High School in Hollywood.
It took a week before Lissette Olivo found Plantation Park Elementary School for Alejandro, who has a learning disability.
“I went to so many schools and I couldn’t find a school that had the programs he needed,” Olivo said.
Ashley and Adonis moved out two weeks before they were put out of the town house and are living together in another area of Davie.
Olivo understands how difficult moving around is on her younger children.
“I went to a different school every year and sometimes three different schools in one year,” Olivo said. “That affected me a lot as a kid. That’s why I try so hard to keep them stable.”
But the family can find humor in their daily struggles.
They laugh about jockeying for a seat next to the only two windows that can roll down in Olivo’s white 1989 Mercedes.
There is no muffler on the car, either.
Olivo turned to Hispanic Unity, a social services center in Broward County, to aid her with managing her finances. The organization nominated Olivo for the Miami Herald’s Wish Book.
“Some people are going through the motions, but with Lissette you can see the real desire and she is always positive,” said Lucienne Brutus, who oversees the program. “I think that she is going to get out of her situation.”
In the meantime, Olivo warned her children not to expect any gifts this holiday season.
“I usually tell them don’t expect anything because I don’t have any money,” she said.
It’s been a few years since the kids have gotten anything besides socks or underwear for Christmas, which usually comes from their grandparents.
“I just tell my friends that I told my mom not to get me anything because my birthday is coming up,” said Adrian Olivo. And when his birthday comes, well, they will have forgotten about it by then.
Lissette Olivo hopes their sacrifices will be viewed as a life lesson for her children.
“I would rather not celebrate Christmas or birthdays,” Olivo said “But at least I know we live in an area where the schools are good and they have a better opportunity.”

WishBook

Billionaire To Invest Millions in W.P.B. MultiFamily

By Andrew Abramson

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH —

Palm Beach billionaire and former U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene is snatching up properties in West Palm Beach, including vacant land behind The Home Depot on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, where he plans to build an apartment complex.
Greene said Friday he expects the apartments to be rented by employees of the Palm Beach Outlets shops that are to be constructed at the Palm Beach Mall site across Palm Beach Lakes.
A plan approved by the West Palm Beach City Commission on Dec. 10 includes 548 apartment units, a clubhouse and a bowling alley on land where the West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium once stood. The 548 apartment units are expected to be priced at about $950 a month for a single bedroom, up to $1,350 a month for a three-bedroom unit.
The plan will come before the commission for final approval on Jan. 7.
“It’s going to be an amazing state-of-the-art complex that will provide fantastic rental housing for people who want to live close to the new mall development, right near I-95, near all the office buildings on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, shopping and restaurants in a great community,” Greene said.
While the project was pitched to the commission as “luxury apartments,” Greene said the complex will fit in an area that he believes will improve once the old Palm Beach Mall is converted into outlet shops, which are expected to employ about 2,000 people.
“There’s no question if you go in a certain direction around the property it’s certainly not considered a luxury neighborhood,” Greene said. “But I think we’re building an upscale, nice apartment complex that’s going to be affordable.”
Greene, who purchased the 22-acre lot for about $6 million, said the area is near upscale neighborhoods, including the Land of the Presidents.
But Greene, a real estate investor who made a fortune on investments following the housing boom, isn’t stopping there. He also bought the foreclosed Comfort Inn at 1901 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. for $6.6 million and converted it into a Ramada Inn with a “a major remodel of the rooms.”
“That’s a couple of blocks from the new mall, so it’s just another commitment to the neighborhood,” Greene said. “I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one who is going to be improving properties adjacent to that mall redevelopment.”
City Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell, whose district includes the proposed apartment complex, said it all sounds promising but “first we have to actually get (the outlet shops) built.”
The first phase of the outlet shops is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013, but demolition hasn’t yet begun on the old mall.
Mitchell said she was unaware Greene owned the vacant land, and she said he was not at meetings to discuss it.
“It’s great that he has interest in the city, and, from what I read. he has lots of money,” Mitchell said.
Greene, who lost to Kendrick Meek in the Democratic primary for the Senate in 2010, said he also plans to build apartments or condos on land he purchased across from Currie Park. That parcel is north of 23rd Street between Flagler Drive and Dixie Highway.
In November, Greene purchased 165 unsold units at the City Palms condominium at 480 Hibiscus St. in downtown West Palm Beach for $34 million. He said he plans to rent the units.
While Greene’s bulk purchase surprised some real estate experts, Greene says West Palm Beach is “a bit of a secret among other South Florida cities and people don’t realize how cool this city is.”
“The urban planning here from (City Planning Director) Rick Greene’s department and the mayor (Jeri Muoio), everyone in the city has been just brilliant,” Greene said. “The zoning decisions made have encouraged these beautiful apartment complexes that have really made downtown West Palm Beach an amazing pedestrian urban environment.”
Greene said he likes that Palm Beach County is less congested than Miami-Dade or Broward counties, and he’s looking elsewhere in the county. Last year, he purchased the Omphoy Ocean Resort in the town of Palm Beach and he also spent $3.7 million on the island’s historic post office, which he converted into office space to manage his various companies.
Greene said he also has properties in Lake Worth and Jensen Beach.

TRG Shapes A Future For Boynton Condo

By Alexandra Clough

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

                            

The Related Group of Miami now is in control of the construction loan backing the troubled Promenade condominium, the Boynton Beach property that has come to symbolize the condo real estate bust in Palm Beach County.
An affiliate of the prominent Miami-based developer on Dec. 5 purchased the property’s $122 million note from a group led by Wells Fargo Bank, according to records filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Real estate sources say Related paid less than half the value of the construction loan. A foreclosure auction for 323 unsold condo units is set for Thursday . However, no other bidders are expected to top the $122 million loan amount, so the property likely will remain in Related’s hands, the sources said. Related is expected to take title to the property Thursday from developer Boynton Waterways Investment Associates in what sources describe as a “friendly foreclosure.”

The construction loan’s sale puts Related in charge of the mammoth condo and frees the property from the uncertainty that has surrounded the Promenade since its inception.
“Having (Related) going into it will make a marked improvement (of the condo) when it comes to the perception of future buyers,” said Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach.

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KW Property Management

 By: Oscar Pedro Musibay

Reporter- South Florida Business Journal

 

 KWPM has operations in various places, including Orlando, Tampa, Naples and Nashville, Tennessee - the latter at request of a current client. Association management is expected to be in higher demand going forward as condominium development is surging in Miami-Dade, specifically in the high-end sector.
The company’s focus currently is on large associations that have a substantial number of employees and provide a high level of service.
KWPM’s projected gross revenue for 2012 is more than $26 million; gross revenue was $24 million in 2011; gross revenue was $21 million in 2010; and gross revenue was $18 million in 2009.
  

THE CHALLENGES:

• Demonstrating there was a better way to manage large-scale properties.
• Growing in a deliberate, smart-cost pattern.
• Widening management contracts from garden-apartment communities into high-rise projects.
• Developing a world-class IT infrastructure and a company culture.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Eighty percent of new business is the result of poor financials from the previous property management firms.
• Customer service is paramount, yielding the company a client retention rate higher than 98 percent.
• An extensive portfolio of training programs is available for all levels of employees, with promotion from within whenever possible.




• Be flexible and adaptable to expand services from developer consulting and association management to acting as a property management receiver for lenders.