By 2006 we had reached the saturation point of the Florida real estate market. We did not see any big projects come in the door that year. We were humming along as we had alot of production work to do for Carriage Townhomes and Flagler Beach Club. The production on Flagler Beach Club was daunting as it was the largest building we'd done at the time.
Laurel Robinson, Executive Director for the West Palm Beach Housing Authority had seen Tuscan Villas and The Promenade and invited us to submit a proposal for the Merryplace townhouses. We beat out two other firms to get the project and we were thrilled to have it. The townhouses are on hold because of the housing market but I think that one day they will be built.
Merryplace Towhnouses
By the end of the year 2007 it was obvious that pipeline for new projects had dried up. The last glimmer of hope was when we were invited to compete on a townhouse project at the Binks Forest Golf Course by the new owner, Aquila Properties. It was an unpaid competition and the folks at Aquila misled me as to who my competition was. If they'd told me I was up against one of the top multi-family firms in South Florida I would have politely passed on the invitation to compete. We didn't have the kind of resources to mount a presentation to compete against a firm like that. Our concept was to create an English village and I think it would've been a nice project.
When we interviewed, it was apparent from talking with the President of the company that he wanted to go with a more experienced firm so I had a feeling we weren't going to get it. The major multi-family firm we were were competing against pulled all the stops and we lost the competition. One thing I learned from this was not to participate in unpaid competitions. If someone isn't willing to pay you anything for your time then they're wasting yours. My father gave me that advice and he was right. I've seen the drawings for what they're selling out there now and we would've done a better job.
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