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I have been trying to find out more about different developers in Costa Rica for my boyfriend who insists on looking at some very odd investments and thought you might find this of interest.
Paragon Properties Chairman The company he was with for 17 years detailed in a report ‘Planning in the Wake of the Florida Land Scams’
On the Paragon website < http://www.buycostaricanland.com/corporate/introduction.htm > it says that.
“For 17 years, Mr. Gale managed all sales operations for Lehigh Acres Development, Inc., a NASDAQ-traded company. The company was responsible for acquiring 64,000 acres of land (a tract of almost 12 square miles), and the planning, implementation of infrastructure, construction and sale of a giant residential community known as Lehigh Acres. The development, which lies just east of Ft. Myers, Florida, is now home to more than 45,000 people.”
Please note that according to his own website confirms he “managed all sales operations,” it does not say that Gale was a developer. So let us take a cold hard look at the community he was involved with for 17 years.
Lehigh Acres Development – The Real Real Estate Experience of Bill Gale.
Hubert B. Stroud, Professor of Geography, Arkansas State University. P.O. Box 2410, State University, AR 72467 and William M. Spikowski, Spikowski Planning Associates. 1617 Hendry Street, Suite 416, Fort Myers, FL 33901 have done it for us and written a report called ‘Planning in the Wake of the Florida Land Scams’ at http://www.spikowski.com/landscam.htm where you will see the development Bill Gale was involved with for 17 years listed under the heading of ‘When Land Scams Become Boom Towns The Case of Lehigh Acres, Florida.’
Doesn’t sound too positive does it? But read the full article and make an educated decision for yourself, I have selected some of my favorite quotes for you below.
1. “The original developer, the Lehigh Acres Development Corporation, was skilled at marketing but had never before developed land (Faulkner 1994). They emphasized the volume sales of unimproved homesites to out-of-town buyers, virtually ignoring community planning and even the basics of drainage. The demand for installment purchases of the early Lehigh Acres lots was phenomenal. Even though typically 40% of the purchasers defaulted on their payments, the lots were simply sold again, since no complicated foreclosure proceedings were required (Gould 1995).”
2. “This development approach created numerous problems including a rigid pattern of nearly identical lots and streets superimposed over the entire site (see configuration in Figure 6); a failure to provide even the most basic services such as water and sewer to most lots; an inadequately designed road network with few continuous arterial streets (despite the apparent grid).”
3. ” .. since sales techniques emphasized retirement living; little vacant commercial land remaining to serve future residents; and the destruction of most of the original wetlands.”
4. “The original developer of Lehigh Acres ran a modern-day “company town” and kept very close control over most facets of daily life, from the home-building corporation to the bowling alley to the local newspaper. An adversarial relationship developed between it and Lee County.”
5. Lehigh Acres was added to the Community Redevelopment Agency because “Blight is defined broadly in the act, and a formal blight study had no trouble identifying a predominance of defective and inadequate street layout and design, faulty lot layout, and unsanitary or unsafe conditions including such things as poor street lighting, dangerous road design, and lack of pedestrian crosswalks and road shoulders (Simpher 1994).”
6. “The resulting imbalance of land uses was caused by the inexperience and the short-term profit motives of the original developers…”
7. “Many problems associated with Lehigh Acres remain unaddressed.”
8. In conclusion “The case study of Lehigh Acres has shown how difficult it is to deal with land developments that were allowed to proceed with little or no planning and with few regulatory controls.”
9. “Ill-conceived land developments have created very troublesome land use problems.”
10. “Unfortunately the problems rarely go away and often become progressively worse.”
According to the 24th August 2003 edition of The Fort Myers New Press which you can see at http://www.spikowski.com/lehigh.htm – “For nearly 20 years, we’ve been debating what to do about the lousy way the 60,000 acre Lehigh Acres development was laid out back in the 1950s.”
From the 21st August 2003 edition http://www.spikowski.com/lehigh.htm of The Fort Myers New Press talks about “More than 16,000 single lots abandoned because of unpaid taxes throughout Lee County could become tomorrow’s parks, schools or preservation areas…”
“County officials and private developers, together, have been busy evaluating how replating can benefit both sides particularly in Lehigh Acres where 93 percent of the delinquent properties are located.”
From the 26th July 2004 edition http://www.spikowski.com/lehigh.htm of The Fort Myers New Press says that “About 7,000 properties throughout the county have accumulated about $2 million in cumulative back taxes. A majority of these vacant properties are in Lehigh Acres…”
I read that Bill Gale says they have built a total of only four homes in Costa Rica for their customers in the last few years and that is on 13 large different projects – Doesn’t it sound like Bill Gale is doing the exact same thing in Costa Rica that he did with Lehigh Acres in Florida for 17 years?
24th August 2003 edition http://www.spikowski.com/lehigh.htm of The Fort Myers New Press: “Legacy of greed. The people who started Lehigh Acres weren’t land planners or developers, they were marketers. Their only purpose was to make money by selling lots a retirement spot in the sun to anyone with a few dollars down and few dollars a month.”
“The characteristics of these communities in Florida are pretty similar:
No water.
No sewer.
No drainage.
No open space.
Little or no land set aside for schools, parks, libraries, fire houses or commercial development.
An insufficient road system laid out on a grid, creating thousands of uniform lots.
Severe environmental damage.”From http://www.spikowski.com/landscam.htm “The original developer, the Lehigh Acres Development Corporation, was skilled at marketing but had never before developed land (Faulkner 1994). They emphasized the volume sales of unimproved homesites to out-of-town buyers, virtually ignoring community planning and even the basics of drainage. The demand for installment purchases of the early Lehigh Acres lots was phenomenal. Even though typically 40% of the purchasers defaulted on their payments, the lots were simply sold again, since no complicated foreclosure proceedings were required (Gould 1995).”
Is this what Bill Gale’s customers have to look forward to in Costa Rica?
PS. The good news is that with all this careful research my boyfriend is finally beginning to listen to my advice.
I must say the articles were very interesting to read and give an academic point of view to this type of development. I get the feeling that Mr. Spikowski would also not approve of the hi rise planning going on in Jaco either or for that matter any number of projects being built there. As an individual involved in real estate I have witnessed many academics abhor much modern day planning and I can’t say I disagree with them. However many Americans in need of affordable housing turn to these type of developments, wonder what he has to say about Levittown? When I googled Lehigh Florida I also found many sites talking about the wonderful community that awaits all and all the lovely new homes. I have many working class friends who have bought in developments like this in the Poconos and love it, the man made lake stocked with bass, golf course, parks etc…not really my cup of tea. My point is just to see a balanced and accurate picture and present another view.
Thank you so much for your research. Now let’s look at the other side of the story. The land in Lehigh Acres was sold on an installment basis and prices started at $495 for a quarter acre lot. Back in the early 60’s Fort Myers was just starting to begin a growth pattern. What you clearly fail to state is that all the planning and plotting of land was approved the the City of Ft. Myers and that thousands of acres of land were improved with paved roads,city water was installed along with a complete sewage system. Schools were built with funds from the State of Florida who were responsable for determing growth patterns. Shopping centers were built with Publix markets as one of the anchor tenants. They are the largest chain of grocery stores in all of the southeastern United States. Hospitals were built. Church groups were provided with land for free and all of this was done with all the governmental authorities approval. We employed almost 1,200 people and created thousands of jobe and brought many millions of dollars to the area.
If land planners back in that period failed to account for what to to become huge growth I will not take any credit for that. It would go without saying that communities all over Florida were mismanaged when it came to that.
If it were possible however to turn the clock back I’m quite sure you might be one of the first to buy. We are all very good at looking backwards.I am very proud to have been involved in what we accomplished. Today 45,000 people live in that city. Land values are now $50,000.00 for the same quarter acre lots and more.
Your comment about the characteristics being the same are just an outright lie.
Now, to what we have done in Costa Rica. We have over the last eighteen months we have sold out a number of very small projects. They comprise 60 to 90 hectares per project. Your very clear misunderstanding of how the Costa Rican government works is very obvious. They are very concerned with developers not complying with all of the very stringent laws. They look very carefully at every stage of the development process.We have and will continue to comply with all the various agencies in our develoment process.
Now to the most glaring flaw in your commentary. It is very true that we have only built 4 homes to date. All of our projects were sold in a predeveloped form. In other words the land was raw. That means it has to be transformed by installing the improvements. I hope that you know what that entales in Costa Rica. If not simply stated Setena ,Invu and Menai the appropriate governmental authorities need to approve EVERYTHING.
We are in Costa Rica to build communities. I was involved in buiding Lehigh Acres from a cattle ranch to a city. I believe that most would say that is a fairly impressive track record. Not many of the so called land sellers in Costa Rica can bring that to the table.
You might wish to further review the following: http://www.news-press.net/community/profiles/index.php?COMMID=7&COMMNAME=Lehigh%20Acres .
If all the land planners could go back and redo the things they approved 40 years ago we can certainly agree that they would all have done things differently. Maybe that’s why they have erasers on pencils.I’m not quite sure of what your end game is but mine would be to build the types of communities in Costa Rica that Americans would be proud to live in. If you find fault in that I’m sorry.
I am very proud of everything we created for the 45,000 residents and the thousands of people who purchased the land before it was developed.
The largest price differential occurs during that process and more wealth has been created in that process.
Success cannot come with a certain degree of effort and I will not be distracted by this or any other attempt to do so. If you do not believe in what I am doing in Costa Rica please don’t attempt to disway others by your dirt peddeling.
I will complete EVERYTHING I started in Costa Rica unlike others who only promise and fail to deliver. You don’t have to accept my comments and I am quite sur you won”t but I will most certainly put the building of a city up against whatever anyone can say.One thing is very obvious, there is a very concerted effort to undermine what we are doing in Costa Rica. Whatever we say or do is not sufficient. So, it is with a great deal of respect that I say we will be in Costa Rica. We will develop our properties. We will build the communities. The proof is in the doing. You will just simply have to see for yourselves.
William Gale
Chairman of the Board
Paragon Properties of Costa RicaThese posting placed in the wrong place and re-posted here by Scott Oliver.
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Posted Jul 11,2006 9:55 AM jillstowe
I read your post. This well help you and your boyfriend who are trying to find out about different develoeprs in Costa Rica. It appears as though the word “Developers” means you are checking more than one although you always seem to talk about Paragon in your research. That seems a little strange to me. Maybe you can research the develoeprs I posted to Scott. I read Mr. Gale’s response and I looked at their site I was impressed with what they are doing I also checked with the state of Florida and Lehigh Acres that he was involved with is a real city. If they converted and developed raw land into a city of 45,000 people I am glad to see someone with that background coming to Costa Rica. I wish him all the luck in Costa Rica if he does the same thing here he did in Florida a lot of people will have a nice place to live. I looked at their models and they look very substantial to me I am not an expert maybe you are. I am a legal secretary what do you do for a living.———————————————-
Reply Delete Edit
message Posted By
Posted Jul 11,2006 10:01 AM Maravilla
You said:If they converted and developed raw land into a city of 45,000 people I am glad to see someone with that background coming to Costa Rica.
I can’t even imagine what will happen to Costa Rica if this kind of development takes place. It’s exactly these kinds of sprawling cookie-cutter projects that have destroyed Colorado and many other places. I’m moving to Costa Rica to get away from this kind of rape and pillage mentality, I don’t care who the developer is.
I do not know this for a fact but I do believe that there are many people from different developments in various forums in Costa Rica who are trying very hard to find faults with their competition and to dig up as much dirt (no pun intended) as possible about them.
To a certain extent this is understandable and obviously our Discussion forum has become a place for some very strong opinions by some obviously determined people.
I am trying hard to ‘moderate’ so that we still maintain a place for intelligent and educated exchanges where people can learn as much as they can about Costa Rica real estate.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI am quite sure you do not know for a fact.
I do not see any other developers responding to questions as to how and why and where. Question them Scott as you did me about their ownership. If you remember ,I provided folio and registry numbers to all of the parcels. I provided you with several hundred transfers of title to individual clients.
Maybe it is about time some of the other “developers” are grilled about their backgrounds and experience as I have been. I will be very happy to put what I have been doing in Costa Rica against them and I will certainly put my land development experience against theirs in a instance.
Scott, lets level the playing field maybe, just maybe instead of moderating you should be educating your members as to the backgrounds of some of the other folks. They have duplicated our format down to the final period on the contract. However do they and can they provide clear and marketable title ? Why has this question not been asked of all. More importantly ,will they respond with the information. Can they build? How many homes have they built? Show me their roads and water system. Let’s make it simple show me their approvals to even move dirt or build roads.If this is to truly be a Forum or an exchange of ideas then maybe a single subject constitutes a forum in your mind. I refer to the constant effort to demean my company.
Not to tell you how to run your forum but maybe it’s about time Scott you ask others to provide what you have been so willing to ask of me. Get in and moderate. Let everyone see the answers for themselves. Invetigate as you have said on many occasions that you would.
You can be part of the soltion or part of the problem.
Lead,follow or get out of the way.William Gale
“The Company” as it was called in those days sold the same lots over and over again because after the purchasers owned it for a short while they realized it was going nowhere. Yes, 45,000 people do live there today but it is considered to be the worst place in Lee County Florida to live. Tell us, how many lots have been sold for the $50,000 you claim they are valued at now? Yes a few scammers sold land for that price but, as anyone can see the great majority of Lehigh Acres lots are sitting empty on roads going to nowhere. Its one of the ugliest places in Florida. I live in Lee County.
I assure you that there is no constant effort on my part to demean your company.
As has been discussed previously, your company came on the scene and from day one obviously did an enormous amount of marketing and that is why your firm first came to our attention and why new VIP Members continue to post and questions comments about you and your firm.
Having said that, there are obviously other companies out there trying to copy your methods so we are indeed seeing more commentary about them.
You may have noticed in a previous posting only today that I asked that “We would ask any of you that are in communication with this company to email them this information and ask them to inform us in this forum of what kind of previous experience Mr. Ellis Kahn has land development in Costa Rica.”
So I will try to get answers for our VIP Members. I am trying to provide accurate, up to date and objective information to help educate and protect our VIP Members and will continue to do so when time permits.
Scott Oliver
WeLoveCostaRica.comPS. Mr. Gale I can confirm that I NEVER received “several hundred transfers of title to individual clients.”
Scott,
This time it’s my turn I have had it with you. You are a pretty good spin doctor… your years on wall street (ha ha)taught you how to really be evasive ( a good stock brokers best weapon)time permiting (that’s a joke) you have had time to devote to me and my company for two years. Your VIP members only became aware of us because we linked thousands of people to your site when we began or perhaps you don’t remember that.
You know Scott I think it just hit me without this type of banter you don’t have a site.
Carry it on by yourself. I wish I could play some more but I have a large company to run.Pura Vida
BILL
Edited on Jul 11, 2006 18:57
Edited on Jul 12, 2006 06:33
I just returned from CR and missed this thread for a while. I live in the Fort Myers area of FL, am a full time Realtor and have one listing in Lehigh Acres. Lehigh is considered by many to be a “last resort” for housing. Some of that opinion is because of the items mentioned above, i.e. lack of planning/zoning, lack of sewer/water in some areas, and some of that is because it is so far out from the work areas and the roads were never developed to handle the amount of commuters.
With all my heart I do hope Costa Rica does NOT become a Lehigh Acres! CR is a beautiful place, but will remain so only as long as there is managed and controlled growth by entities that truly care, not just care for $$, but care for the environment. PLEASE, NO LEHIGH IN CR!!
Posted in the wrong place and reposted here by Scott…
message Posted By
Posted Jul 13,2006 9:29 AM simondg
Developers whith experience started without experience, doesnt make them bad.Marketing of land is not a crime, although reading the comments in this forum you would think it is!!!
Many of the comments I read herein are simply ignorant and misguided, buy from recommended realtors and see if you’re happy with their prices! Good Luck
simondg
1. Nobody said that they were bad
2. Nobody said that marketing of land is a crime and …
3. Thousands of people every year happily buy real estate in Costa Rica from professional real estate agents – normally around the price that the seller wishes to sell them at and many real estate agents do actually SAVE money for their clients…
4. I have met many individuals selling land here for prices that are much higher than neigbouring land with the same views etc., so you are not always going to save money buying land direct from a speculator.But at the and of the day, we are free to choose the real estate we want to buy and we obviously must agree on a price that we are willing to pay.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com
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