http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/dec/30/briny_breezes_mobile_home_owners_could_soon_be_mil/?businessBRINY BREEZES — Nestled conspicuously amid multimillion-dollar homes and splashy high-rise condos, the coastal trailer-park town of Briny Breezes seems out of place, a relic of Old Florida that may soon vanish. If residents approve the Palm Beach County community's sale to a developer for more than a half-billion dollars, almost every owner of the 488 trailers would become an instant millionaire. Not a bad return on investment if you consider that some bought their homes as recent as a decade ago for $35,000.
But just how much is a lifestyle worth? It's quiet here in one of the last remaining coastal trailer-park communities between Miami and Palm Beach, an island of unpretentiousness surrounded by glitz and glamour. Residents cruise the narrow streets on golf carts, passing palm trees and tiny, neatly manicured yards. They wave to each other, exchange goodies and chat about the next neighborhood outing — water aerobics at the community pool, shuffleboard near the clubhouse and bowling nights. "You just can't buy a way of life," said Tom Byrne, a 68-year-old retired sales executive from New York. He doesn't want to sell even though he stands to make a little over $1 million on the trailer and site he bought two years ago for $150,000. "This is my home."
Kevin Dwyer, 47, has a different attitude. "See these pockets? They're empty," Dwyer said. A stack of unpaid bills sits on a table in his single-wide trailer — it's less than 100 yards from the ocean. "I've nickeled and dimed my whole life. I hit the lottery." Dwyer, who paid just $37,500 for his trailer nine years ago, would make about $800,000. The 43-acre town sprouted from a strawberry farm in the 1920s, back when Florida's charm was its subtropical weather and quiet, coastal bliss — long before the days of Art Deco, Miami Vice, and Walt Disney World. So-called "tin-can tourists" came down yearly with their trailers to escape the Northern cold. A group of regular visitors bought the property in 1958, and it became a town in 1963. It is run as a corporation by a board of directors, and the residents own shares based on the size and location of their lot. The number of shares — each worth about $32,000 under the developer's offer — will determine how much residents gets if the town is sold.
Briny Breezes' board recently approved the sale for $510 million. Shareholders have until Jan. 10 to ratify or reject the deal. A two-thirds majority is needed to sell, although the contract isn't official — and residents don't get any money — until 2009. With 600 feet of oceanfront property and another 1,100 feet along the Intracoastal Waterway, land like this in southeast Florida is gold.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
