Deeper Inside the Davie Land Debacle; Adler Hit With Clawback
If you thought the Town of Davie's $12.5 million purchase of 25 acres from Austin Forman was a total ripoff for taxpayers, you were right.
Yes, the price of $500,000 an acre in today's economy seems patently egregious, but don't take my word for it. Listen instead to Bob Breslau, the president of real estatement development for major builder Stiles Corporation.
| Austin Forman, at center, has millions of reasons to smile |
"I was shocked to find out this was approved, and we did not have more input on this," Breslau wrote in an email to Davie politicians on Friday. "... [T]he price paid per foot was just amazing to me. I purchase land in Broward quite a bit, and was shocked to see the price per foot paid."
And what about city officials' shout that they bought it under the value of two appraisals?
"Appraisals are worthless in today's economy, as pricing changes monthly, and historical comparables have become meaningless," Breslau wrote. "If they assumed highest and best use, there is no real estate product in today's economy that can support a land value that the Town paid for a commercial or residential product."
There you have it, and if you don't believe an authority like Breslau, who also happens to the president of a Davie homeowner's association, then I'll lead you back to Susannah Bryan's story published in the Sun-Sentinel about the purchase, wherein Jonathan Kingsley, managing director of the real estate firm Grubb & Ellis, remarked that Davie paid $12 per square foot when the going rate is about $4. Using that measuring stick, Forman made about an $8 million killing.
It's like clockwork with the Forman family, who recently lost their patriarch, Hamilton Forman. Every few years they produce some outrage regarding the taxpayers' dime. You have the insider deals with the North Broward Hospital District (anybody remember Patricia Mahaney?), the $900,000 piece of land the school board bought for $2 million, and the recent scandals at the Palma Nova trailer park on the very land Davie just purchased.Add this one to the list, maybe at the top. But Davie Councilman Bryan Caletka, who helped push the deal through and was in the majority 3-2 decision to buy the land, says he has no regrets.
No regrets, but lots of phone calls. He estimates he's gotten about 50, most of them none too happy about the





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