0 Comments | Palm Beach Post, Jun 24, 2007
Will the tax reform plan help end the pain in the real estate market?
Not likely, said Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits.
Last week, Nikolits addressed the first meeting of the Master Brokers Forum in Palm Beach County, held at The Resort on Singer Island. The Master Brokers Forum, already active in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, consists of Realtors producing $5 million a year in sales during the past five years. In other words, people with a dog in this real estate tax fight.
The standing-room-only crowd of nearly 100 listened carefully to a panel discussion of real estate, taxes and insurance. But when Nikolits told the group that the Florida Legislature’s tax reform measure fell short, Nikolits was greeted with applause, or as he put it, “hoots and hollers.”
Why? Because Nikolits stated what is becoming increasingly obvious: The proposed tax reform won’t help all taxpayers and therefore won’t do much to lift the sagging real estate market.
The reform fails to address the need for “portability,” meaning people cannot bring their Save our Homes exemption with them to another property. Nikolits said the reform plan also still keeps the biggest tax burden on those without Save Our Homes, such as snowbirds who have second houses in Florida.
“The same basic problem is that not everybody is still being treated the same,” Nikolits said Wednesday, the day after the meeting. “I don’t see where you’ve done anything for tax reform.”
Has Dr. Oz lost hope he will find his Emerald City in Palm Beach Gardens?
Word is star cardiologist Mehmet Oz is frustrated by the slow pace of efforts to find and build a Palm Beach County campus for his nonprofit foundation.
In January, the telegenic surgeon and frequent Oprah guest announced a planned opening of his Foundation for the Advancement of Cardiac Therapies. The center would combine traditional medicine with alternative therapies, such as acupuncture.
At the time, Oz said he picked Palm Beach Gardens because his wife’s family has a home here and because there are lots of rich donors in the area. He also cited pledges by Palm Beach Gardens officials to ease regulatory obstacles for scientific organizations.
But in the five months since that optimistic announcement was made, finding a site has proved easier said than done.
Sources say Oz has been looking at tracts of around 14 acres. Unfortunately, raw land takes time to develop. Traffic, for instance, needs to be studied and approved as part of a routine site plan. The approval process can take months. Sources say the process is more involved than the can-do cardiologist thought and he’s getting frustrated.
An Oz rep didn’t return repeated phone calls for comment, but real estate sources in the know spoke up.
“He’s having to jump over all these hurdles,” said one source who requested anonymity. “I’d say he’s not coming to this area.”
Not true, said Kelly Smallridge of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.
“What is true is that the particular piece of land under negotiation is giving them more problems than they thought,” Smallridge said. “There are timing challenges. People don’t realize how long it takes.”
Smallridge said she’s still optimistic Oz will come to town. So click your heels and stay tuned.
When times are good in the real estate business, information flows. When times are not so good, well, details can be hard to come by.
Take the status of the Trump Tower Palm Beach condo planned for West Palm Beach. Barbara Salk of Related Group of Miami said the project had a “very successful launch” Memorial Day weekend. That was the date set to convert refundable reservations into firm contracts, including 10 percent deposits.
With units priced between $900,000 and $2.5 million, the money adds up quickly. “We wrote up $60 to $70 million” in sales, Salk said.
How many units is that, exactly? Salk hedged, saying Trump Tower “was nearing” sales of 45 percent of its units. In other words, about 67 of 150 units sold.
It’s a respectable showing but not the mark developers Donald Trump and Jorge Perez wanted to hit. Salk said they were aiming for closer to 60 percent of the project sold, or about 90 units
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