Watermark appeal ends with buyout
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
KEY WEST — A legal
showdown over the controversial Watermark development in the Key West
Bight was unexpectedly derailed Tuesday, when two nearby residents
dropped their legal challenges after the project developers agreed to
buy their homes.
Both men said they
decided to sell and drop the case because they knew "the railroad" was
coming to town — and the tracks would be right in front of their homes.
Bight area residents Bill
Barry and Gary Lichtenstein had filed separate appeals with the city,
challenging the Historical Architectural Review Commission approval of a
posh 26-unit condominium complex in the location long occupied by
Jabour's Trailer Court.
The two recently
approached the developers and asked them to buy their homes, said
Everett Atwell Jr., a developer of the project. A day before the group
was supposed to go before a city special magistrate, the developers
agreed to buy the two homes.
Barry and Lichtenstein
announced at Tuesday's hearing that they were dropping their appeals.
Their lawyers, Lee Rohe and Bob Goldman, said they were not part of the
negotiations.
Goldman asked for a
recess in order to obtain a written an agreement for Lichtenstein, but
Lichtenstein refused, Goldman said. Barry said he decided last summer to
sell his home, months before he filed the appeal.
The bight "has changed
dramatically," Barry said. "I made the only decision I thought I could.
I wish the others [fighting the project] the best in their endeavors."
Developers said they
offered a deal to four other vocal opponents of the project, Barbara
Bowers, Shirley Freeman and Bill and Sheila Rowan. The developers told
the four that they would not allow the owners of the condos to rent them
out to tourists, if the group would not publicly oppose the project. The
four declined, the developers said. Freeman contends the offer was
changed.
"I'm bitterly
disappointed," Freeman said. "They bought them out with offers they
couldn't refuse .... I thought the transient use offer was a go, too,
but it wasn't. It was the old bait- and-switch."
Atwell calls the purchase
of the two homes a "good investment."
"Investment in property
in Key West is always a good deal," Atwell said. "They approached us in
both cases and we thought it was a good deal."
Lichtenstein and Barry
would not disclose their selling prices, but said they were fair market
value. The Monroe County Property Appraiser's Office assessed
Lichtenstein's property, a condominium unit, at $261,000 and Barry's at
$875,475. Properties almost always fetch more on the open market than
their assessments for tax purposes.
The project has been
delayed for months, costing developers thousands of dollars, as
neighbors have appealed city decisions and challenged the project in
court. Two groups of neighbors have filed lawsuits challenging the
project. It is next scheduled to go before the city Planning Board.
The developers, Caroline
Street Partners, plan to build spacious two-bedroom, two-bathroom
condominiums. The complex will feature a day spa and other amenities
that give guests a "decadent" and "luxurious" experience, a Watermark
sales brochure states.
Opponents of the project
say the proposal is out scale and character with the rest of the
neighborhood. Supporters say the new project would be nicer than the old
trailers and recreational vehicles parked at what used to be the
Jabour's trailer court. |
