Broken Promises Plague Suburban Development
"We were expecting a real nice, clean community," Spector said. "We'd moved from California, and we were expecting the planned communities to be similar to the planned communities we'd lived in in California." Spector says what he got instead was a community dominated by renters and out-of-town investors. Residents say the community is plagued by drug dealing, gang graffiti and poorly maintained properties.  See home builder related articles: Housing Market Tracker - Homeowners Fighting Back Against Homebuilders

Broken Promises Plague Suburban Development

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI of The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 8, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Mark Spector liked the Bridgewater community off Curley Road so much he convinced his in-laws to buy a house down the street.

That was in 2004 when Lennar Corp. was in the early stages of developing the 760-home community just east of the Wesley Chapel school complex.

"We were expecting a real nice, clean community," Spector said. "We'd moved from California, and we were expecting the planned communities to be similar to the planned communities we'd lived in in California."

Spector says what he got instead was a community dominated by renters and out-of-town investors. Residents say the community is plagued by drug dealing, gang graffiti and poorly maintained properties.

"It makes it really difficult for a community to really be a community," Spector said. "It looks very much like an apartment complex on the weekend where you see a lot of rental trucks moving in and out."

The implosion of Florida's overheated housing market has left thousands of homeowners living in situations similar to Spector's and his neighbors' in Bridgewater.

Binge-buying investors, many of them now stuck with homes they can't flip and can't afford, are either filling those houses with short-term tenants or simply abandoning them. For Bridgewater residents forced to live amid the housing market's ruins, the promise of suburban peace and quiet has been replaced with concerns about crime and falling property values. Foreclosures are climbing and the community is littered with empty homes.

"My wife and I would love to move," said Jim Martin, Spector's father-in-law. "We can't sell our house. I don't know if we could give it away."

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Lennar sold Bridgewater as a great place to raise a family. The homes - many of them the same models it had sold in other Pasco communities - came with everything from appliances to ceiling fans. They sold quickly, even as prices passed $300,000.

Spector and his family were drawn by the enormous lakes at the heart of Bridgewater - the legacy of an earlier mining operation on the site.

Bridgewater wasn't Spector's first choice. He and his family settled into Bridgewater after losing housing lotteries by M/I Homes and KB Homes.

At the time, Spector said, Lennar's sales staff promised no more than 30 percent of the homes would go to investors. The sales contract required buyers to promise they would live in their house for at least a year before selling.

"The reality, though, is that Lennar sold to a lot of investors," Spector said.

Lennar officials declined repeated requests to discuss Bridgewater.

Not What Was Promised

County property records shows that nearly two-thirds of Bridgewater's 760 homes lack homestead exemptions - a key sign they're owned by non-residents.

On streets such as Glendalough Way and Humbert Circle, all but a few homes are owned by non-residents. Californians, New Yorkers and other Floridians did most of the investment buying, property records show.

In a few cases, Lennar sold as many as five homes to a single investor - Ramjeet Mankichand of Jamaica, N.Y. Mankichand sold all his Bridgewater homes within months of buying them, raking in large profits each time.

Other investors weren't so lucky.

Cory Jarriel was one.

Jarriel, a Hillsborough County firefighter, bought his house in 2005 with plans to live in it for a year then sell it. The deterioration of the neighborhood and the housing market has foiled those plans.

Now Jarriel lives next to one of Bridgewater's empty houses.

"It's never been lived in as long as I've been here," Jarriel said while rebuilding the brakes on his Jeep in the driveway of his house.

He's weighing his options.

"I have perfect credit," Jarriel said. "I thought about letting the house go back [to the bank]. It wasn't worth letting my credit go to hell."

On Tagus Loop, at the southern edge of Bridgewater, about 60 percent of the houses are owned by non-residents. At least a half-dozen are either bank-owned or are in the early stages of foreclosure.
Bobby Martin and his wife, Cheryl, were first-time buyers when they closed on their one-story home on Tagus Loop in 2004.

Standing in his driveway on a bright afternoon, Bobby Martin, 29-year-old financial planner, says half-jokingly that he enjoys the quiet provided by the empty investment properties on either side of him.

But more seriously, he notes: "The only thing you worry about is the fact that they're basically abandoned."

Fighting For Community

Last fall, Spector was elected president of Bridgewater's homeowners association. Since, he has been fighting to keep his community from falling into disrepair.

The HOA took down basketball hoops at the community park on Wells Road after the park became a site of drug dealing and alleged gang activity. The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Bridgewater has more criminal activity than most communities its size, including a large number of burglaries and thefts.

"We're trying to be diligent on the other violations that are apparent," Spector said.

"There are a number of mailboxes throughout the community that have been vandalized. We try to get the owners to repair the vandalized mailbox as soon as possible. We try and keep the trash picked up."
But with so many empty homes and out-of-town owners, it can be hard to get problems fixed promptly, if at all, he said.

The HOA now uses a "forced mow" regime to keep up the yards and landscaping of untended homes.
The group raised its fees to pay for the mowing program. Property owners get billed for the service, but few pay. Spector has begun filing liens in hopes of recouping those costs eventually.

Delinquent property owners owe the HOA $70,000 in unpaid dues, Spector said.

"Roughly 130 homes in a community of 763 homes have never paid a single penny towards our dues," Spector said. "It's been difficult to maintain solvency because of that."

Despite his community's troubles, Spector tries to be upbeat. He hopes the collapsing housing market will drive out investors in favor of more owner-occupants.

"These are the people who are going to move in and actually live in the community," Spector said.
"These are the people who are going to take care of the community. It doesn't matter if they had a $200,000 discount from what I paid."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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