Kevin D. Thompson had an article in the Local news section of the Palm Beach Post wherein he cited several businesses that are or have moved into Lake Worth. I am curious as to how many have moved out. Now, even Callaros has their business up for sale. We had a huge slowdown in our economy that seems to be turning around.
Chris Fleming is correct when he says that the commercial real estate market is "on fire." Chris Fleming, a commercial broker with Strategic Properties, touted the General Obligation Bond in this article that is on the November 8th ballot saying that passing this will bring more investment into our city. This statement, as well as others he made, is subjective and made by someone with an interest in the bond's passage and, let's face it, selling more commercial property.
Businesses in Lake Worth, for the most part, are located either on county roads or state roads and will not be affected by the 29.72% of our residential roads that will be repaired under this $69 plus million dollar bond. All the businesses cited in this Post article lie within the county or state ownership parameters.
Mr. Thompson mentioned The Gulfstream Hotel with their purported $70 million project in limbo because of legal issues. As said a million times, renovating the existing hotel has nothing to do with this lawsuit. It is the owner's (Hudson Holdings) excuse not to do anything and with a legal matter pending in court, they can't flip their property which must be their real business plan? People keep falling for the hotel owner's line, over and over again and the city has bent over backwards to give them waiver after waiver. They still do nothing.
Bornstein going around to his creepy little handpicked,political neighborhood associations doesn't count as "public meetings" three weeks before the election! Why no city wide workshops??? Better a slow bus than a short bus Greg. Anybody stupid enough to allow a 30 year debt for only 30% of our roads that will only last 15 years had better jump aboard the bus with you and your friends.And everyone can wave bye bye to our bike lanes.Lake Worth will be the highest taxed city around. Couple that with our rotten reputation and good luck trying to sell your house. As businesses get the hell out of town they won't be replaced. Who will be able to do business here?? The noose will slowly tighten around all of our necks. By that time all of the morons who did this to us will be long gone.
ReplyDeleteThere was NO HURRICANE prep done to the Gulfstream hotel !!!! Did anybody else notice that?? We were under threat of a Cat 4 storm . Every window in that building would have been blown out and the damage would have been catastrophic to the hotel.I never believed the comments about Hudson wanting to demolish the hotel and sell the property. I do now. And I am NOT voting for the bond. Brian Mudd from WJNO radio did some great shows on this bond topic.I live east of Federal in the "good" part of Lake Worth and I love my location but if this bond passes I am OUT of here while I can still get out !
ReplyDeleteI'd vote yes on the bond if our elected officials would make their IRS tax returns public.
ReplyDeleteHa ,good one ,John !!!!!
ReplyDeleteTherein lies "The Heart of the Matter: 8:55 A.M. "A 30 year loan for 30% of the roads, that will last 15 years." Are you and I the only ones that can figure this out. Put forth a more reasonable proposal, and I'm sure we will all take a look at it.
ReplyDeleteOk so I attended the meeting last night and the audience asked really good questions.
ReplyDeleteThe city has a calculator on the first page of their website so everyone can plug in their taxable value of their property and see what the estimated tax will be specific to their property. Also learned that commercial properties will be rated at the same rate as residential. So that's not going to drive any businesses away... Owners of McMow's Art Glass, Phil and Shannon attended and Phil publically said he was happy at his estimated $70 per month to improve the roads as his customers do complain about them and it embarrasses his company with the bad image it portrays of out city.
So I plugged in a taxable value of $100,000, (which captures 65% of all LW properties) and multiplied by the millage rate of 1.56 and that is $156 annually, or $13.00 monthly.
Scott Maxwell's taxable value at $36,858 muliplied by the rate equals $33.54 a year or $2.80 per month for the first 2 years, and $57.50 a year or $4.79 per month for years 3-30.
Lynn you luck out as your exemptions zero out your taxable values so you pay nothing on this bond issue. Awesome for you.
So then I looked at some intracoastal properties found many hover in the $1,000,000 taxable ranger... Did the math and their cost is $1560 per year or $130 per month.
All in all, it's pretty easy to see that the majority of property owners in LW will pay less than 2 Starbucks coffees per month for this bond issue.
Seems a logical and affordable solution to rectify the worst of our roads.
Sorry I missed you last night, the Beach Club was packed, I was happy with the venue as it allowed me to order up a plate of their wings for my dinner and they were yummy... And is was $5 wing night! Wahoo!
Thanks for all your information that has been written about, exhaustively I might add.
ReplyDeleteJust think...$5 for chicken wings...more than I will have to pay for this bond. Amazing revelation. And now you are using Maxwell's comment from 2 years ago substituting a cup of Starbucks for a hamburger. Great stuff.
This is NOT about me, anonymous. And it's not the fact that commercial establishments will pay a different rate than residential property owners--NO ONE HAS EVER SAID THAT. What they will be doing is paying much more as their property values are much, much higher. This is always a consideration when a business wants to move here or when a commercial buyer wants to purchase.
Great going for the Materio's. No surprise.
I still believe staying home for the Marco Rubio debate was much more beneficial.
But thanks for reporting and giving us your I LOVE TO BE TAXED cheer.
The Gulfstream is making progress- did anyone else notice that they have put a large gravel mulch around the base of the 6 trees on Lake Avenue?
ReplyDeleteStunning!
This took only 23 months since their promise to have it reopened in 14 months in November 2014.
If it is the trees that I am remembering, the city takes care of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn, just to be clear, I did not "tout" the bond issue. My statement was simply that when a City invests in its infrastructure, private investment follows. I am not currently a resident of Lake Worth although I have lived in and around Lake Worth since I was 12, with 20 + years on South Palmway. I leave the Bond Vote up to the residents, but I do stand by my statement above regarding public infrastructure investment. A deteriorating infrastructure is the kiss of death for most investors other than the bottom feeders. And while my career IS commercial real estate for the past 32 years, I am a bit more invested in the commercial real estate business than just wanting more sales. A large part of my business is leasing existing properties and then managing those properties for our clients (We maintain, manage and lease The Promenade at Lake Worth at 120 N Federal Hwy as one example). As a LWHS alumni (1980) and having lived most of my life in Lake Worth I also personally want Lake Worth to succeed with ALL of its neighborhoods and business districts. Thanks for the mention
ReplyDeleteHi Chris--thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in wanting Lake Worth to succeed having been here most of my life. We all want the economy to improve and property values to rise. We want slum, blight and crime diminished and a vibrant downtown that is safe for all.
We need our roads fixed...that is a given. I just would have liked for the city to be more straight-forward with details.
This is a good time to be active in real estate! Hope you're making tons of money.
Best,
L
P.S. Haven't seen your spectacular sunrises on My Sky Photo lately.
Thank you Lynn!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love Chris Fleming! He's a great commercial realtor, a professional, a gentleman, and an even keeled former Lake Worthian who really does have the pulse of the community and sees the potential in LW.
ReplyDeleteLynn I simply can't understand how you are now distancing you self from the Cavers (citizens against virtually everything) and in particular, Joann Golden's stated purpose in life to make us "get used to living in a ghetto". That whole 'affordable living' crowd doesn't want property values to increase, they want chickens running the ratty beaten up old streets like some third world country,
This Caver community and you Lynn along with your sorry ilk have publically stated your contempt for and publically proclaimed your lack of support for our downtown corridor and the businesses that make us actually have a downtown. You want a 'vibrant' downtown, yet throw down obstacles and bad mouthing at every opportunity like a whining child. What a turn of conscience you've had! Now all of a sudden you want to see a thriving Lake Worth? Now all of a sudden you want to see appreciating property values?
You know if you were truly interested in learning about what the bond is all about and what roads are to be repaired, and the systematic engineering approach that is being taken to logically identify, quantify and target our biggest road problems, then maybe you and others would actually do he leg work and show up at one of the serveral opportunities you have to become better versed and ask your questions.
Quit crying in your porridge. Will all the roads be fixed by the bond? No! But after decades and decades of neglect to our 100+ year old infrastructure, this bond will address the 1/3 of the worst roads and they will be fixed. And if you and your audience made yourself more informed you would understand that the bulk of current budget maintenance dollars have been poured into these worst roads... By fixing the worst roads first, the maintenance dollars can extend the life of some of our other roads so they don't become totally shot and need to be completely rebuilt at higher dollars. This makes total economic sense - I just wish you could see that.
You are flat wrong on many points stated above, anonymous @9:51. You have false assumptions about many people in our city. Your lying myth continues---
ReplyDeleteMy audience has a fast array of opinions, even yours. Most are highly knowledgeable, probably even you other than your opinion about me.
Walter @ 12:58pm. Here is the answer to the trees at The Gulfstream:
ReplyDeleteLynn, the city does take care of the trees in the right-of-way adjacent to the Gulfstream Hotel and the city installed the rock in the tree wells.
David McGrew
Horticulturist Technician
561-586-1677 Office
dmcgrew@lakeworth .org