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Real Estate & Property Law

: a View from the property line

$100-Million Condo for One?

By William G. Gammon

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Amidst the bevy of economic horror stories in the news assaulting our daily lives, comes a strange tale of the $100-million condominium project in Fort Myers, Florida where one solitary family lives in a 32-story, 220-unit highrise. The original link to the story can be found here, from a story by the Associated Press that originally appeared over the weekend in Yahoo News.

Evidently, this Fort Myers condominium (the Oasis Tower One) had been ravaged by a trinity of recessionary forces -- foreclosures, soaring unemployment and rising bankruptcies -- and saw all but one of its tenant contracts get cancelled or otherwise go unfulfilled. The Fort Myers area, like many counties across the country during this prolonged economic nosedive, is mired in a recession of historic proportions. The Associated Press monitors the "Economic Stress Index" of some 3100 counties nationwide, assigning each county a value in a range from 1 to 100 to indicate the relative level of economic hardship in any one region. A value of 11 or more on the index indicates that a particular county is in economic distress. The Fort Myers area rated a value in excess of 20 on the AP's index.

Fort Myers was supposed to be blossoming into Florida's next high-profile center for economic development until the brakes were put on the economy, that is. Now, the Oasis Tower One stands proud, but deserted, with scant few lights left on, utility services restricted, and most amenities either locked up or plans to build them long-abandoned. And what of that lone brave family that still lives there? They remain, with hopes for a better future, along with getting a neighbor or twenty.

*the original Yahoo News/Associated Press article can be read in its entirety by following the link above or by clicking on the link here, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090801/ap_on_re_us/us_lonely_highrise

Full post as published by a View from the property line on August 03, 2009 (boomark / email).