On February 24th this year Cosmo Di Schino, the owner of the property at 102 N. Dixie Highway (formerly Bid Daddy’s Lounge) applied for a commercial enhancement grant to fix up the property he owns. He wanted to lease it out but had to make certain repairs before a tenant would want to lease from him. He asked for $19,010 from the CRA but received $16,530.50 in matching funds. He even wanted tax dollars to pay for overhead, supervision and builder’s fees. Luckily the Grant does not cover those types of fees or he would have had that too! Lake Worth Media did an expose on this as well as other grants, showing that the owner lived in a 6,600 sq. ft. house on the water valued at over $1.3 million.
Instead of giving tax dollars to someone who obviously can well afford to keep up his property and upgrade it himself, he should have been coded and given a big fine. The parking lot was totally neglected, even with trash and weeds. The owner couldn't bend over to pick up a bottle. He didn’t even bother to keep it clean. Now Mr. Di Schino can go about his merry way, collecting rent, thanks to the upgrade the people funded. Can it get any sicker than this?
These types of entitlements need to stop.
