New Housing Revisited

So what?, you may ask, is the latest with Mr.Kelly and the Homeless people that he is situating in Sheffield O. Nothing has changed. There has been no movement in any direction, at all. The homeless, who are not homeless any more. They now have a rental in Sheffield O.

For those of you that have not read the Palm Beach Post article concerning this problem I have included a copy at the end of this post.

So the Managers of this Property, Century Village, don't seem to be inclined to do anything. I mean Mr.Levy, one of the owners of Cenvill, which manages this property. In addition, Benenson Capital, the actual owners of Century Village, may not even be aware of the threat to their investment and the downward spiral that property values in Century Village are seeing.

The action that Mr.Kelly is taking and plans to take will cause those value to fall even further.

If you think that UCO is planning to help the residents here. Think again. See the article below. You will see where the president of UCO says that this situation is caused by the Victims. He says the fault "lies not just with Kelly's Real Estate speculation, but with speculation of another kind, in blogs and newsletters". He is trying to say that the only defenses that the residents have, the Blogs and Newspaper, are the cause of Mr.Kelly's successful Real Estate efforts.

This is blaming the Victims. This is unbelievable!! It must be the the way the victim was dressed.

If you expect UCO to come to the aid of Century Village. It's not happening!

What should be happening is that Mr.Levy of WPRF and Benenson Capital should working to remove this threat. They, it appears, are not.

A going business, which this rental Hotel is, should be stopped. It's against the by-laws and probably the Millennium agreement also. So why haven't they swung into action? I don't expect UCO to do anything. They are against the Malcontents who are the only ones fighting this.

 This is the Posts' take on Mr.Kelly, UCO and Sheffield O

Century Village investor to elderly owners: I’m buying your condo!!

Posted: 12:00 a.m. Saturday, June 13, 2015

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By Tony Doris - Palm Beach Post Staff Writer



WEST PALM BEACH — 

Nancy Salmi moved to Century Village in suburban West Palm from California’s high desert in 2004, to be near her son and grandchildren, who live in Wellington.

In the sprawling, 55-and-older community of two-story condos, Salmi, who uses a walker, found a ground-floor unit condo for $35,000. The 71-year-old with shoulder-length gray hair and a sunny disposition still loves the 615-square-foot, one-bedroom unit in the Sheffield O building.

Nancy Salmi doesn’t want to be forced from her Century Village condo. But now she lives under a cloud.

An investor has snapped up most of the building and wants to force the other owners out.

“I am in the process of taking steps to dissolve the Association of Sheffield O whereby all of the apartments that I do not own would be forced to sell to me at the Palm Beach County Appraisers value,” Donald T. Kelly, wrote to Salmi on March 2.

Whether he can do so is not clear, says Dave Israel, president of United Civic Organization, the coordinating authority for Century Village’s 309 property owners associations. What is clear, Israel says: the entire community is in a panic over whether what happens at Sheffield O could topple other buildings like dominoes.

“These are elderly people and they’re scared to death,” he says.

Kelly has not revealed his plans for Sheffield O or other buildings where he has been accumulating condos for the past four years. The Palm Beach Gardens resident said that on the advice of his lawyer, he would not talk.

The word in the community at various times has been that he might turn the building into an assisted-living facility or a rehab center or just rent out the condos. Residents say he already rents some units to people directed there by a nonprofit that helps the homeless transition into housing.

According to Israel, Florida law allows investors who own 80 percent of a building’s condos to force the remaining 20 percent to sell. By his count, Kelly owns 15 units of the building’s 26 condos, some under the name of trusts he controls and has the power of attorney over two others.

“That gives you control of 17,” Israel says. “The magic number to dissolve a condominium association to buy out the rest under the current statute is 80 percent, ” which would require him to own 21 condos.

Kelly already is president of the Sheffield O Condominium Association.

“Clearly he controls the building,” Israel says.

But not so fast, Israel adds. Kelly would never get permission to dissolve the association from the corporations that hold the long-term lease for Century Village and manage the property, Benenson Capital and Cenvill Recreation, Israel says. “That’s a major ox he’s trying to gore.”

In Israel’s view, the problem lies not just with Kelly’s real estate speculation but with speculation of another kind, in blogs and newsletters stirring fear in card rooms throughout the community. That talk alone can scare away potential buyers and drive down property values, he says.

But Neil Moore, one newsletter distributor, says failing to air the issue also is a danger.

“Everyone in the village is really upset,” he says.

As for fear of buildings filling with homeless people, Ezra Kreig, program director of the Senator Philip D. Lewis Center in West Palm Beach, acknowledges that the center helped some formerly homeless people respond to rental ads for Century Village condos. The center’s job is to help people who have been homeless find places to live throughout Palm Beach County, he says.

The center doesn’t place people, he notes. The people reply to ads, sign rental agreements with landlords and gain homeowners association approval, Kreig says. “These were homeless people. They might have been veterans. Come on,” he says.

“Their beef is with that guy,” he adds, referring to Kelly. “Their beef isn’t with us. …Here’s a larger thing: People need to understand that just because someone is labeled ‘homeless’ doesn’t make them a bad neighbor. …It’s not Lewis Center sending 9 million people to overrun a building. It’s not happening.”

For Salmi, the main issue is the prospect of being forced out.

Financially she’s stuck.

Even if she wanted to leave, she owes $20,000 on a condo the property appraiser says is worth $13,260. Even if she wanted to sell, who would give her a good price, considering what’s going on in the building, she asks.

She also has a legal history with Kelly, who sued her three times when she was on the condo board a few years ago. And though each suit was denied or dismissed, she doesn’t have the money to hire a lawyer to defend another battle, she says.

“It’s really stressful,” Salmi said Thursday. “I didn’t move to Florida to go through this. I wanted to enjoy things and be with my family.”

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Have a news tip or an issue of concern? Contact reporter Tony Doris at tdoris@pbpost.com, or 561-820-4703.