letter to the editor

City Should Hire Expert Accountant and Attorney in Field of Large Scale Real Estate Transactions

letter

​Dear Editor,

​As a retired real estate developer,​ I find there are many outstanding questions about the Peary Court purchase​.​

If the average rent, as mentioned in the Citizen, is approximately $2400 (which is not affordable housing rent), how does the purchaser (city) know whether if the rents ​w​ere lowered to make them conform to what might be defined as truly affordable housing rent ($1200.00) ​that the income from the project would support the mortgage, taxes, expenses etc? ​

In addition,​ will city have a committed mortgage rate at the time of the public vote?

How with the city reduce the rents from approximately $2400.00 down to the lower income level​ of affordable housing?

How will the city determine the cost of repairs and upkeep?

How are the rents to be controlled when the current leases run out​?

Will ​the leases​ be allowed to be ​for one month or one year rental?

Shouldn’t the rents of new leases and options be based upon income verification of the applicant​ to coincide with the definition of AFFORDABLE HOUSING RENTALS.?

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This matter should not go to the public vote before an accountant and attorney who are experts in the fields of developing, leasing, cash flow, assessment and purchasing of rental properties be hired.

This is not a two million dollar investment and even if it were​, if​ designed for affordable housing, the same procedure should be used.

It sounds great that the city wants to put to a public vote whether to spend $55,000,000 on a real estate purchase which is supposed to allow for the property they are purchasing to be used for AFFORDABLE HOUSING.  But the fact is, the city has no idea about the financial controls that will be involved in the deal.

Sounds like the cart before the horse story.

Sure the average citizen thinks this sounds great, but they have no idea what any of it means​ and neither do I.​

Perry Frantzman

Key West

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One thought on “City Should Hire Expert Accountant and Attorney in Field of Large Scale Real Estate Transactions

  1. I agree Perry,’the average citizen has no idea what it means’. 75 words will sell this project to the voters with words with no definitions – what is “affordable” housing, and what is “workforce” housing – I am sure we all have our own definitions and assumptions – never ‘ass-u-me’ ianything n terms of logic or common sense – especially in Key West.
    No one has brought up the question of who will be ALLOWED to live in what is being ‘sold’ to us as workforce/affordable housing – retirees? snow birds? those few people with salaries of $70,000 and up who cannot afford to buy a half million dollar house or don’t want to, or non-working people of government subsidies getting together in a 2 bedroom apartment – many who will contribute nothing to the WORKforce. So WHO is going to determine WHO will be allowed to live in these apartments should the voters be fooled into thinking this is a good deal.
    In all my years investing in rental properties, I was only allowed 75% of the total rental income toward the mortgage. We are being told rents will pay the mortgage – is that 100% of rental income? Maybe the 75% does not apply in commerical loans? It should or banks are setting themselves up for another 2008 and bailout by taxpayers – bend over!
    There are way too many questions and serious concerns over this purchase.
    The city has talked this issue to death over way too many years, yet done NOTHING to preseve the affordable housing we have lost over the years (think old Cathlic Simonton St trailor park for startrs – where they are now building ugly modular homes at nearly $1 million! and NO affordabel housing was required)
    YES! We have a very serious affordable housing shortage, but to date we have not heard any feasible, intelligent solutions, and worse we have seen the city do NOTHING to preserve affordable housing we have lost over the years 🙁
    What we need is a LIVING WAGE – maybe then workers could afford housing. These KW businesses are making record profits and yet they pay their workers $9 and $10/hour and expect the taxpayers to provide subsidized affordable housing for their slave laborers paid slave wages!
    And is this problem only going to continue to get worse? Does the city and county do anything to curb the problem and limit the number of business licenses in Key West? I don’t know the anwer to this, but I have not seen evidence of such. Think about it – it the government allows them to open new additional businesses, they will come. More business…the need for more employees…and they will live where? And here comes Walmart…….. Christine

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