By Anne Geggis

Ocean water testing reported Thursday gave the all clear to seven beaches from Jupiter to Boca Raton that had been closed to swimmers on Wednesday because of unacceptably high levels of bacteria found in sampling earlier in the week.

Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach Municipal Beach and the adjacent Sandoway Park, and Spanish River Park in Boca Raton had been among the beaches closed because of the advisory from the Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County. But, by early Thursday afternoon, they were open again.

The Health Department does daily water tests at public beaches to ensure the levels of bacteria associated with stormwater runoff, human sewage and animal waste are at a level no greater than the standard for safe recreation in the water. The samples that found unacceptably high levels were taken during testing on Monday and follow-up water samples were taken on Wednesday.

The other beaches that had been closed due to water sampling that showed poor water quality were Carlin Park in Jupiter, Riviera Beach Municipal Beach Park, Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and R.G. Kreusler Park in Lake Worth Beach.

By Anne Geggis

Ocean water testing reported Tuesday found elevated levels of bacteria in water from Jupiter to Boca Raton, so a slew of South County beaches are closed to swimmers for now.

Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach Municipal Beach and the adjacent Sandoway Park, and Spanish River Park in Boca Raton are among the Palm Beach County beaches where swimming is inadvisable, according to the Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County.

Sampling for enterococci bacteria found the water quality at these beaches to be “poor.” The levels of bacteria associated with stormwater runoff, human sewage and animal waste were at a level greater than the standard for safe recreation in the water. The samples were taken during testing on Monday.

Other beaches closed due to water sampling that showed poor quality are Carlin Park in Jupiter, Riviera Beach Municipal Beach Park, Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and R.G. Kreusler Park in Lake Worth Beach,

A round of testing will be conducted today to find out if the water quality has improved and the beaches can be reopened.

Meanwhile, the Tuesday results found the water quality acceptable at Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park in Ocean Ridge, Lantana Beach Park, and South Inlet Park in Boca Raton.

By Anne Geggis

A newcomer to the Ocean Ridge Town Commission — who happens to be a relative newcomer to the town — was the top vote-getter Tuesday in a four-person race for three seats on the dais.

Voters were asked to choose three candidates and Ainar Aijala Jr., who filled a vacancy on the commission in January, won nearly 30% of the 1,206 votes cast among four candidates. Mayor Geoffrey Pugh drew 28% support and Commissioner David Hutchins – another recent appointee to the commission and a retired airline pilot – garnered 27%. Nick Arsali, 68, a retired professional engineer, was a distant fourth with 15% of the vote.

The two top finishers will serve full three-year terms and Hutchins, 75, will serve a two-year unexpired term.

Aijala, who was sunburned from consecutive days campaigning at the polls, said he thinks his message resonated with voters.

“I’m really thrilled to continue as a commissioner for three years,” the retired Deloitte executive, 67, said.

The town is facing challenges regarding how much water-handling and sewage improvements the town of 2,000 can afford.

 Aijala said that although he’s owned a home in Ocean Ridge for just six years, and not had a role on the town’s governance committees, his executive experience was enough to win voters over.

“I think the residents looked at the challenges facing the town going forward and felt that me being here six years and not for 26 years (as some other candidates) is not relevant,” he said. “I think they felt that my background could bring a skill to the table.”

The election follows a year of turmoil in Town Hall. Two commissioners resigned in early 2023 following a split vote on making then-acting Town Manager Lynne Ladner’s position a permanent one. They were replaced by two others who resigned at the end of the year, one citing the state’s new financial disclosure requirements for elected municipal officials. The town’s police chief also resigned in 2023 to go to Gulf Stream.

Pugh, 61, who will have served 20 years on the commission by the time he ends his new term, said that he aims to keep things running steady.

“I think we have a good team and hopefully everything will be nice and quiet,” Pugh said.

Pugh, who owns a pool business, has presided over meetings as mayor the past year. It will be up to the new commission to select a mayor for the coming year at its April 1 meeting.

Hutchins said his conversations with voters as he campaigned left him with the impression that most are happy with the way the town is running. Still, replacing the town’s old water pipes is rising to the top of his priority list.

“I believe the figure to change out all the pipes would be prohibitive,” Hutchins said. “We have to work it into the budget as we can.”

Note: This article has been updated to include election comments from Commissioner David Hutchins.

Unofficial results. Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

The crowd at the Palm Trail Grill celebrated Tuesday's Delray Beach mayoral victory of Tom Carney and commission victories for Tom Markert and Juli Casale. ABOVE: (front l-r) Tony Petrolia, Phil Pepe, Kelly Barrette and Casale are jubilant along with a smiling Carney, with Mayor Shelley Petrolia (center back) celebrating with her arm on Carney's shoulder. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Anne Geggis

Delray Beach voters spurned a real estate-backed slate of candidates Tuesday in choosing Tom Carney as their new mayor along with two new commissioners: one a first-time candidate and the other returning to the dais a year after losing a re-election bid.

The new mayor, a lawyer by trade, is expected to lead a new three-vote bloc with the commissioners elected Tuesday: Tom Markert and Juli Casale. All underdogs to their top competitors in raising money for their campaigns, the trio promoted themselves together, urging voters to choose, “Tom, Tom and Juli.” They campaigned against what they called the city’s “overdevelopment” amid warnings that the city’s motto “Village by the Sea” was at risk.

Carney, 70, a former city commissioner who briefly served as an interim mayor for two months in 2013, will replace term-limited Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who supported his candidacy.

Even though he received more than $60,000 less in campaign contributions, Carney defeated Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston, who raised more than $155,000 to lead all candidates. Totals show Carney won nearly 52% of the vote to Boylston’s 38% and former Commissioner Shirley Johnson's 10%.

At a celebration announced after the votes were tallied, Carney hailed a mandate for a change when it comes to managing the city’s growth and spending.

“I’m incredibly honored and I’m even more incredibly humbled,” said Carney, who learned of his victory when he was awakened from dozing by a phone call from his wife, now in England, telling him the news. “I plan on stopping this overdevelopment, giving money back to the taxpayers and dealing with the traffic.”

The victory gathering at Palm Trail Grill, outside the city’s bustling downtown, also drew two other newly elected commissioners. First-time political candidate and former Nielsen TV ratings executive Markert will replace term-limited Commissioner Adam Frankel and former Commissioner Casale will move into the seat that Boylston is leaving due to term limits.

Markert, 66, won nearly 39% of the vote. He defeated Jim Chard, 79, a former New York City municipal executive, and Tennille DeCoste, 47, who was recently dismissed from her job as the city of Boynton Beach’s human resources director. Chard won nearly 37% of the vote and DeCoste was a distant third, winning 24%.

“The voters spoke loud and clear that they want change,” said Markert, who campaigned on addressing the tight squeeze residents face on city streets and the need to replace the water treatment plant.

Casale, 55, a retired businesswoman who was defeated in her bid for re-election to the City Commission last year, won a seat against two candidates in the hunt for their first elected office. Casale garnered 42% of the votes to the 37% that Nick Coppola, 58, a retired electrician, won and the 21% for Anneze Barthelemy, 46, a social worker with a private consulting business.

“The message is people want good governing,” Casale said. “This is a big night.”

Mayor Petrolia, who supported the winning slate, also took part in the festivities at Palm Trail Grill, where Carney held his kickoff party and his recent 70th birthday party. She playfully pinned a button from her previous campaign emblazoned with “Shelly” on the new mayor.

“It’s a great night — unbelievable, unbelievable,” she said. “The city made a decision. I feel like everything is going to be in good hands.”

Following the city elections in March 2023, a new voting bloc led by Boylston had coalesced on the dais and Petrolia found herself on the losing end of a number of votes.

Delray Beach Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston (center), at his election night watch party at the Tin Roof, reacts to screens showing his opponent, Tom Carney, beat him in the city's mayoral race, with former Commissioner Shirley Johnson finishing third.

Over at the Tin Roof, where Boylston had his downtown watch party adjacent to Coppola’s, the first flash of results showed all of the precincts reporting. The crowd, at first, thought those results would be the early and mail-in votes.

But then reality set in.

“Look at that,” Boylston said, as he gazed up at the screens showing Carney's substantial victory.

Earlier, at the polls, Lee Cohen, 30, who works in marketing, admitted to an unfamiliarity with the issues facing the city, since he’s only lived there five months. But he checked with his cousin, who’s lived in Delray Beach much longer, about who to vote for. 

His cousin recommended, “Tom, Tom and Juli.”

“I love it,” he said of Delray Beach. “I love that there’s so much to do. It has the vibrancy of a big city but with a small-town feel.”

Referendum fails

In another issue on the ballot, nearly 59% of the city’s voters rejected a proposed amendment that would have eliminated the city’s Board of Adjustment and streamlined its functions under the city’s planning board. The board considers appeals and variances to the city’s land development rules and will continue to do so, according to the vote.

Unofficial results. Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

By Rich Pollack

It finally happened.

After 33 years and two unsuccessful attempts to rid the town of an outdated $350,000 spending limit, Highland Beach voters on Tuesday loosened the fiscal handcuffs on their elected leaders, approving a charter change that increases the cap to $900,000 per project before a referendum is required.

“The voters did the right thing,” said Highland Beach Vice Mayor David Stern, who championed the proposal to boost the cap to what the $350,000 limit passed in 1991 would be in today’s dollars and add an annual inflation adjustment. “It’s outstanding.”

In addition to approving the change to the spending limit, 60% in favor to 40% against, voters also approved spending up to $3.5 million to line sewer pipes. They also approved giving the town the option to allow the county’s supervisor of elections to oversee Highland Beach’s election canvassing board rather than requiring commissioners to serve on it.

The sewer pipe lining project received 77% approval while the canvassing board issue received 70% approval.

It is the change in the spending cap, however, that will probably have the most significant impact on the town’s ability to tackle small capital projects without having to get voter approval, which can be lengthy and costly.

“This makes the process a lot smoother,” Stern said. “We now have the ability to approve projects with a reasonable cost without having to go to referendum.”

With the town starting its own fire department in May, increasing the spending limit takes on more importance, according to Town Manager Marshall Labadie, because of the high cost of replacing equipment and apparatus.

Stern believes the success of the proposal to increase the cap was due in part to the simplicity of the ballot measure, as well as to support from the Committee to Save Highland Beach, a local political action committee that opposed raising the spending limit when it came before the voters two years ago.  

“This was presented to the voters in a clear and simple way,” he said.

Two years ago, Stern and others say, the attempt to increase the cap to about $1 million failed to get voter support in part because the proposed limit was based on a percentage of the overall town budget, which was seen as a complicated formula.

That was the second failed effort.

In 2012, it appeared that the spending limit would be increased when the Town Commission passed an ordinance raising the limit to $1 million only to discover — after a Palm Beach County Inspector General report two years later — that any change in the limit needed voter approval.

In the interim, the town had begun construction of a $850,000 town hall and police department renovation project that was permitted to proceed.

Since it was first introduced in 1991, the cap has had a significant impact on the town’s success — and failures — in moving forward on major expenditures.

In late 2021, voters overwhelming gave the town commission the green light to spend up to $10 million on a new fire department, with just shy of 90% of voters approving the proposal. That vote cleared the way for the town to build a new $8 million-plus fire station.

Nine years ago, voters also gave the commission permission to spend $2.8 million on a water main replacement project on six side streets.  

A firetruck was at the center of a 2010 referendum, when voters narrowly turned down a request from the commission for permission to go over the cap and spend $810,000 on a new firetruck. The measure failed with 1,016 residents saying no and 946 in favor of buying the new truck.

That vote left the town stuck with a truck that was 15 years old and had cost $135,433 for maintenance and repairs during the previous five years, leaving it out of service an average 11.8% of the time.

The truck continued to cost the town thousands of dollars in repairs for several years until a lease agreement with Delray Beach was signed.

In 2019, voters overwhelmingly turned down three ballot items that would have given the commission their approval to spend $45 million on three projects on improvements along State Road A1A, including drainage improvements, enhancements to the town’s Ocean Walk multi-use corridor and surrounding areas, and placing utility wires underground.

In that election, which saw one of the largest turnouts in town history, more than 90% of voters rejected the spending plan.

By Mary Thurwachter

Soon after the polls closed in Lantana, incumbent Mayor Karen Lythgoe joined friends at Lantana Pizza to celebrate her 653-385 win over newcomer George (Jorge) Velazquez.

“I’m relieved and I’m grateful that I get to keep working on what we’ve been working on,” Lythgoe, 64, said. “The five of us (council members) have got momentum going that I think is phenomenal.  I think the town needs what we’re doing, we know what we’re doing, and I’m honored to be able to continue to be a part of it.”

She said she hadn’t slept for 24 hours and would be going home soon.

“I tossed and turned all night long and got up at 3:30 a.m. to start the day even though the alarm was set for 4:15 a.m.

The day did not go without some chaos.

A handful of Democrats were turned away from voting in Lantana, as poll workers were apparently confused that registered voters of all stripes could cast a ballot in the nonpartisan mayoral election.

The exact number of Democrats the confusion affected is not known.

An official with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office said the office knew of that happening to one voter, who called the Department of State in Tallahassee to complain. Lantana Town Clerk Kathleen Dominguez said she saw it happen to one voter, who was able to vote when Dominguez intervened. She also knew of four others who were turned away and heard of another voter who was able to clarify that he or she was able to vote before leaving the polling place.

As far as Dominguez said she knew, the confusion was confined to two town polling places — Maddock Park and Lantana Recreation Center. Nonetheless, the complaint prompted Elections Supervisor Wendy Sartory Link to send out a notification to all the Lantana precincts clarifying that although there was not a Democratic presidential primary, Democrats were eligible to vote in municipal, nonpartisan elections and should be given a nonpartisan ballot. Link also came to town to help sort things out, Lythgoe said.

“There was some confusion either with the training or the field clerk,” Lythgoe said. “I am a registered Democrat and when I went to get my ballot for the mayoral race they had to converse and figure out if I was allowed to vote.”

Lythgoe said the voters who were turned away were called and invited to come back to vote.

Lythgoe was elected to the council in 2020 and was acting mayor after Robert Hagerty resigned in 2022. During a special election last year, she ran successfully to complete the rest of Hagerty’s term, which ended with Tuesday’s election.

Velazquez handled defeat with a positive outlook.

“It is what it is, so it’s fine, I’m okay,” the 57-year-old said. “I got a lot of experience from this and I really learned a lot.”

Velazquez said he has helped friends with campaigns in the past and may do more of that in the future. A former commercial real estate agent, Velazquez worked in a federal prison in Miami from 1996 to 2009.

Of Lantana’s 7,500 registered voters, only 1,027 cast ballots in the mayoral election, under 14%.

 Staff writer Anne Geggis contributed to this report.

By Mary Hladky

 Andy Thomson easily reclaimed a Boca Raton City Council seat on election night, capturing 62.3% of the vote to defeat opponent Brian Stenberg.

Thomson, senior counsel at the Baritz & Colman law firm in Boca Raton and an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University teaching local and state government, resigned from the council in 2022 to pursue his unsuccessful candidacy for the Florida House District 91 seat now held by Peggy Gossett-Seidman.

After losing that race, Thomson said he would seek elected office again and ultimately decided on a run for the Boca Council Seat D to replace term-limited Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte.

“I feel incredibly blessed to be entrusted with this,” Thomson said at his campaign party at Maggiano’s restaurant. “I have served on the City Council before, but I take the duties very seriously and I am honored that the city would have me back in that way.”

Also victorious in the March 19 election was incumbent Yvette Drucker, who claimed Seat C by winning 77% of the vote and trouncing perennial candidate Bernard Korn.

Thomson received far more campaign donations than any of the other candidates, bringing in $133,604. He blanketed the city with campaign signs and drew the longest list of endorsements of any of the candidates.

Stenberg, a partner in the Greenfield Properties medical office real estate management firm, was making his second bid to serve on the council after Mayotte defeated him in 2021.

Stenberg congratulated Thomson at his own party at Duffy’s restaurant. “I wish him the best. I wish the best to the city of Boca Raton,” he said.

He did not rule out another race for a council seat. “The citizens who voted for me, it was a very passionate vote for them. I want to honor the value of their votes.”

Stenberg said he did not seek endorsements and raised $16,709, with about a quarter of that coming from personal loans to his campaign. He relied on reaching out to voters directly and through volunteers.

Stenberg drew support in mid-March from the BocaFirst blog, which, without mentioning him by name, called him the “resident advocate candidate” in the mold of former Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke who stressed being “resident friendly” and opposed to overdevelopment.

City development has long been an issue in campaigns as the number of residents has reached nearly 100,000 and construction projects have sprouted citywide.

In their campaigns, both Thomson and Stenberg offered nuanced views on development, with Thomson saying growth should be managed responsibly, and Stenberg calling for “respectful growth” that avoids overdevelopment.

Drucker, who raised $61,463 in campaign donations, is a first-generation Cuban American and the first Hispanic to serve on the council. She is a longtime volunteer with many organizations, including the Junior League of Boca Raton.

Drucker has made improving transportation and mobility her passion and promised to continue that work during her second term. She stressed “common sense” development.

Korn, a real estate broker, self-financed his campaign with $5,550. He has twice lost elections to Mayor Scott Singer and once to Drucker.

In the most recent campaign, Korn said his top priority was to end “uncontrolled development.” He also railed against what he said was political corruption in the city and among council members without offering factual evidence.

Korn repeatedly asked residents to file complaints with the state against Drucker, contending she had violated ethics rules even though there was no basis for that
allegation.

“It was a wonderful result for this campaign,” Drucker said of her victory, “but also to win by such a margin after the attacks by my opponent. The best is yet to come.”

When Mayotte, who lives in the eastern part of the city near downtown, leaves the council at the end of this month, all five council members will live west of Interstate 95.

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

Unofficial results

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections

By Anne Geggis

The body of a young man, reportedly wearing a T-shirt and shorts, was found on the shoreline near the Mayfair House Condominiums Sunday morning, according to South Palm Beach officials.

A beachwalker called 911 at about 7 a.m., according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. The area around the Mayfair, 3590 S. Ocean Blvd., was cut off to passers-by for a time, South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer said, but it was back open by late morning.

A wallet was also recovered from the scene, officials said.

It’s the first time Fischer said she has heard of a body coming ashore in this town of about 1,500 and she’s been around for about the last 45 years.

“We’ve had marijuana and homemade boats (come ashore), but never a body,” Fischer said.

The Sheriff's Office said the beachwalker found the body facedown near the water line. Detectives from the Violent Crimes Division investigated on scene.  There were no evident signs of foul play, officials said, and the man was pronounced dead at 7:19 a.m.

Note: This article has been updated from the original to clarify how the body was found.

Penthouse Delray undergoes balcony work, a common sight as condos face deadlines for inspections and repairs. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Owners pay soaring prices for repairs, insurance, reserves as new demands hit coast ‘like a tsunami’

Also in the special report:

South Palm Beach — Southgate

Highland Beach — Coronado 

Boca Raton — Mayfair

By Rich Pollack

It was a storm that no one living in a beachside condo could have seen coming.

As shock waves from the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Miami-Dade County reverberated northward, condo owners up and down the coast became unwitting victims of the financial aftermath.

Insurance companies, fearing more billion-dollar losses, raised premiums on condos that in some cases would eat up close to half of a complex’s operating budget. State regulators and some local governments, hoping to stave off another catastrophe, implemented strict structural standards and revived a once-tempered requirement that buildings have fully funded reserves.

Now, with additional premium hikes on the horizon and with deadlines for often multimillion-dollar structural remediations and reserve studies closing in, condo boards along the southern coast of Palm Beach County are finding themselves forced to require special assessments and raise monthly or quarterly maintenance fees to levels that are driving longtime unit owners to consider fleeing their homes.

“People are starting to have to decide whether to fill their prescriptions or pay their HOA fees,” says Rob Marzigliano, president of Seagate of Highland in Highland Beach, where a small exodus of unit owners has already begun. “The people on fixed incomes are struggling.”

At the 316-unit Seagate, where four buildings planted on the west side of State Road A1A have stood for more than 50 years, the monthly maintenance fee jumped from $880 last year to just under $1,000. Added to that is a $60,000 assessment to cover repairs identified during a state-mandated inspection.

“We’re getting hit with a lot of repairs in order to make our condo safe,” said Marzigliano, who sees more increases coming.
At Seagate, where about a dozen units are on the market, the cost of those repairs is spread out over all the 316 unit owners, helping to minimize the impact. In some of the

smaller buildings with fewer than 50 units, assessments are coming in at more than $200,000 per unit.

While some are struggling to meet the suddenly high cost of condo living, many others on the coast can afford to foot the bills, even if they’d prefer not to.

Still, the cumulative impact of having to deal with what some call a triple whammy is leaving many wondering how condos will deal with a huge impact all at once.

“We understand insurance increases, we understand the importance of recertification and we understand the need for reserves, but everything is coming at us all at one time, like a tsunami,” says Emily Gentile, president of the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach. “People don’t understand the impact of this on those of us on the beach. It’s devastating.”

Gentile says one group that is feeling the impact a little harder than most is seniors.

“It’s hard when you’re almost 80 years old and you’re getting hit with all this stuff and there’s nothing you can do but move,” she said. “It’s overwhelming.”

Another challenge facing condo boards is the increasing number of requests for improved amenities and services coming from new and often younger residents. Those improvements can also drive an increase in assessments.

Marilyn Blitz says high quarterly fees forced her to sell at the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

“There were more assessments than I have shoes — and I have lots of shoes,” said Marilyn Blitz, who in September sold her high-rise two-bedroom unit at the Yacht and Racquet

Club of Boca Raton and moved to a beachside rental apartment. “It just became price-prohibitive to stay there.”

Blitz says that just before she sold her condo, the quarterly condo fee came in at just over $7,700 and included a special assessment and a $2,000 special bill for reserve funds.

On top of that, Blitz said, are rising property taxes, which this year were about $5,400.

Selling the condo where she had lived for about 15 years was not an easy decision for Blitz, who says she misses some of her friends and the amenities she took advantage of.

“I wish I hadn’t had to leave, but I’m happy where I am,” she said. “I figured if I sold my condo and put whatever proceeds I had in the bank, it would give me the leverage to do the things I want to do.”

Gentile and others say that assistance from state or local governments in the form of low-interest loans would help ease the burden shouldered by condo boards and condo owners, but that does not appear to be happening anytime soon.

Scrambling for insurance
Skyrocketing property insurance premiums are a problem across the state for single-family homeowners as well as businesses. For condominium complexes, however, the challenges that come with finding affordable insurance — if they can find insurance at all — has been magnified.

The beachside Clarendon condominium in Highland Beach is one of dozens of condos that discovered their insurance company had dropped them, forcing the board to race to find coverage.

“We had to scramble,” said President John Shoemaker, adding that many of the companies they hoped would help had pulled out of the state. In the end, Clarendon was able to get coverage from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s insurance company of last resort.

At Clarendon, insurance costs increased 56% with the premium now about $400,000 a year. A special assessment averaging about $7,000 per unit was implemented in order to pay the premium.

“It’s absolutely killing us and we’re looking at a 20% increase coming this year,” Shoemaker said.

Insurance accounts for about 42% of the Clarendon board’s overall operating budget, and Shoemaker believes that just about all condos up and down the coast are in the same boat, with insurance being between 40% and 70% of budgets.

That can lead to other problems, according to Shoemaker.

“When you have to spend so much on insurance, there’s only so much left for mandatory maintenance,” he said.
In many cases, spending money on preventive maintenance is just not possible.

Paying for years of neglect
For many condos that focused on regular maintenance as well as preventive maintenance, the costs of making mandatory structural repairs can be affordable.

Yet for other buildings where maintenance has been put off, the cost of having to do several now-required repairs — replacing a roof or air-conditioning system, for example — is causing pain in the pockets of residents.

“A lot of problems come from kicking the can down the road,” Shoemaker says.

He says that in many cases condo boards faced with having to do repairs had options to “repair, replace or ignore,” and too often ignoring the problem was the chosen path.

At Seagate, for example, Highland Beach town officials say that inspections revealed emergency generators were not properly functioning for years, leading to the condo board’s having to pay for temporary emergency generators until new ones can be installed.

Mandatory inspections required as part of the state recertification process have revealed widespread structural issues due to concrete deterioration. In some cases, cracks and other signs that concrete has weakened have been painted over or otherwise ignored.

“Because of the age of many buildings, maintenance should be done annually,” said Kevin DuBrey, director of project management for Hillman Engineering, one of many firms that conduct the mandatory milestone inspections required for recertification.

DuBrey says that most of the time when his team does an inspection it finds signs of corrosion, including chunks of concrete missing or cracks.

“It’s rare that we don’t see minor structural damage,” he said. “It’s not significant but it should be addressed right away.”

Without proper treatment, corrosion could spread and further weaken rebar, bringing a danger of large pieces of concrete falling from the building, he said.

DuBrey said that a lot of issues engineers see come as a result of boards not knowing how important it is to address issues.

“It’s not with bad intentions, it’s not with malice,” he said. “It’s often a lack of understanding of the repairs.”

While acknowledging the possible burden of state requirements that buildings three stories or higher and 25 years or older be inspected before the end of the year — unless municipalities set earlier deadlines — some see a silver lining.

Shoemaker and others say recertification is a positive because it prevents condos from delaying needed work and it can take pressure off condo boards.

“Certification is good,” Shoemaker said. “It tells you just how far everything was left in a state of disrepair.”

In many instances in the past, condo boards would suggest repairs but could not get a majority of unit owners to approve moving forward.
Now with the state mandate, the decision on whether to make repairs that routinely cost millions of dollars no longer falls on the condo board.

Making reserves mandatory
Until recent changes in the law, condominium boards could waive any requirement to have reserve funds available if the majority of unit owners agreed. That changed after the Champlain Towers collapse; now condo boards must ensure reserves are available to cover the cost of major structural projects and of items with a value of more than $10,000.

For buildings that have been setting aside money for major repairs or renovations, the impact of the new law could be manageable. For those that haven’t, the new law will mean going back to residents once again, asking for more money.

“It’s going to be a financial burden people don’t yet understand,” Shoemaker said.

Most condos probably will have to ask for additional funds from residents, even those that set aside reserves but have had to use some of them for repairs to meet recertification requirements.

“It’s rare that there are associations that have fully funded reserves,” said condo law attorney Elaine Gatsos.

Under the new law, condos are required to complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study by the end of this year conducted by an engineer, architect or other professional certified to do a state-required inspection.

That study mandates an evaluation of roofs, major structural items, electrical systems and just about anything else with a replacement cost of over $10,000 to determine the life expectancy of that item and the price of replacing it.

The study, which must be done every 10 years, also must provide a reserve funding schedule with a recommended amount that needs to be set aside each year so that the full amount needed to replace the item will be available when it reaches the end of its useful life.

If a condo’s internal wiring system, for example, will cost $100,000 to replace when its estimated useful life ends in 10 years, the board will be required to incorporate a portion of the cost into its annual budget each of those 10 years so it will have the full $100,000 when it comes time for a new system.

Gatsos, who has been representing condos for more than four decades, says that until the study is completed, uncertainty hangs over the heads of board members, who have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure funding is available.

“All the condo boards are shaking in their boots wondering what the reserve studies are going to come back with as far as the dollar amounts that they’re going to have to include in their budgets,” she said.

Impact on real estate
What does all this mean for the price of real estate?

Some say if too many residents sell or if an abundance of foreclosures occurs, it could result in values decreasing and could mean smaller buildings would have to sell to developers to be torn down and replaced with more luxurious condos.

Shoemaker is among those who say the improvements will make buildings more attractive to buyers.

“The property will look good and be certified as safe,” he said. “Prices will go up because the building will be better.”

Real estate agent Mark Hansen, who specializes in luxury condos, agrees that building improvements can enhance the value of units, especially east of the Intracoastal Waterway where demand remains high.

“When buyers know that things have been updated, it can certainly be helpful in maximizing value,” he said.

Hansen said that the beach area may have an advantage over condos in more western communities because demand for property remains strong.

“People want to live here,” he said. “It’s still a very desirable location.”

Possible solutions
Gentile, from the Beach Condo Association, is lobbying to have the state help condos and condo owners with low-interest loans. On her wish list are long-term low-interest loans for repairs, a low-interest loan fund for insurance and a revision of reserve requirements to make them manageable.

Gentile would also like to see regulations to ensure construction prices stay in check even during high demand.

State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, whose district includes Boca Raton and Highland Beach, is sympathetic but doesn’t see a solution anytime soon.

“The legislature has to address this but it’s not a quick fix,” she said. “Everyone wants a quick fix, but it’s just not quick-fixable because it has to be done correctly with everyone involved.”

She said she would work with some of her colleagues to discuss possible solutions and hopes the reserve issue can be brought back to the legislature next year.

Until fixes come from Tallahassee, condo boards and presidents will do their best to meet mandates while keeping unit owners’ challenges in mind.

Marzigliano at the Seagate condo says it’s been a challenge to get a good night’s sleep since he became president of the board — a full-time volunteer job — in April.

“I wake up worrying about how to restore Seagate and how to keep residents happy,” he said.

Ray McMillan is especially unhappy the condo’s reserve fund must be filled so quickly. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

‘Everything paid up’ — but more expense on way

Also in the special report: Condo costs: A sudden storm| Highland Beach — Coronado|Boca Raton — Mayfair

By Brian Biggane

While Ray McMillan describes himself as a conservative Republican, he’s not at all happy of late with Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature.

For him, that body’s decision to pass a bill requiring condominiums three stories and higher to fill their reserve fund in two years’ time was a bit too much. It coincides with a mandated recertification process by the end of this year, as well as dramatic increases in property insurance, a triple whammy that is creating financial hardship for many coastal residents.

McMillan said the reserve fund issue should have been spread out over more years, not just two.

“It’s a shame,” said McMillan, a resident of the Southgate condo in South Palm Beach and a member of the Town Council. “I don’t know what DeSantis was thinking by rushing to pass this legislation.”

In one sense, Southgate was fortunate. An engineering inspection required by the recertification law determined few repairs were needed, the most significant a $40,000 roof job covered by the general fund.

Nonetheless, the board of directors determined that maintenance fees would need to rise from $910 to $1,672 per month, an 84% increase. And the board billed residents of its 129 units a $5,036 special assessment that was broken down into five installments of a little more than $1,000 per month.

“So we got everything paid up by the first of January,” McMillan said, “and we weren’t even two weeks into the month when we got a notice from the insurance company that there would be an increase of like 30%” for next year.

“Next year, who knows what they’re going to do? Maybe (the assessment) will be $15,000 per unit.”

Built in 1974, Southgate has the same issues of every high-rise condo that’s been around that long. Foremost this year was replacing one of the elevators in the three buildings; that was done, but now another is requiring frequent attention.

Southgate HOA President Stacy Buckley said other repairs are already on the horizon.

“We anticipate and will be collecting funds over the next few years for new roofs, balcony and concrete restoration, and painting,” Buckley said. “Very similar items to many of the condos on A1A which are of similar age.”

As younger buyers with deeper pockets buy into the coastal market, some condos report demands for amenity upgrades such as pickleball courts and jacuzzis. Another resident,

Elva Culbertson, said that hasn’t been an issue at Southgate.

“The people who are really well-off aren’t coming to Southgate,” she said.

The real estate website BEX Realty last month listed 13 Southgate units for sale, compared with only four at the newer Palm Harbour building just down the road.

While Buckley said she believes many of those who have put their units on the market are “infrequent users (who) find the fee increases as a reason to sell,” McMillan said his conversations have said otherwise.

“She might be talking to different people, but the people who have been talking to me have been long-timers. Everybody I’ve talked to has not been happy.

“People are frustrated, but a lot of them have enough of a nest egg to cover it. But a lot of people are like, ‘No, I’m getting out of here.’”

Jason Chudnofsky, board president of the Coronado, stands amid exterior repair work underway at the 336-unit Highland Beach condo. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Dropped by insurance carrier, condo finds new one covers fraction of value

Also in the special report: Condo costs: A sudden storm|South Palm Beach — Southgate|Boca Raton — Mayfair

By Rich Pollack

The letters from the insurance company in the middle of last year brought the bad news to board members at the Coronado at Highland Beach.

First the insurance company let the board know that it would raise the annual property insurance premium for the 336-unit condo — with two towers on the west side of State Road A1A and a beach club on the east side—from $1.5 million to $1.9 million.

Then the insurance company, concerned about the condition of the roofs, decided to drop the Coronado completely, leaving the board with just 30 days to get coverage.

“We couldn’t even get insurance from Citizens,” board President Jason Chudnofsky said of the state’s insurer of last resort. “We shopped and we shopped until we found a company.”

That new company, however, offered only policies that were less than optimal.

The annual premium for the buildings, which were built in 1983, is now just shy of $2.8 million and it provides only 35% coverage, meaning the insurance company will pay a maximum of $38.5 million even though the buildings are valued at $110 million. Chudnofsky said the Coronado is hoping to find a company that will provide 100% coverage as soon as possible.

Insurance now represents close to half of the board’s annual operational budget — 42% — up from 24% in 2002.

To cover the rising insurance rate, the board of directors raised the quarterly maintenance fee from $4,150 to $5,300, or from $16,600 to $21,200 a year.

For residents of the Coronado, some who have been in the 40-year-old community for decades, the increased insurance premium is just one factor requiring them to reach deeper into their pockets.

The price tag of state-mandated repairs and the need to bolster reserves translate into more extra costs. Coronado residents are now being hit with a one-time $40,000 per unit assessment, to be paid over eight years, along with the likelihood that the maintenance fee will continue increasing in coming years.

As part of its efforts to meet state and town recertification requirements, the Coronado board hired an engineering firm, which detailed the work that needed to be done.

Replacing the roof was one of the big expenses, as was concrete restoration. Also on the agenda was rewiring and making improvements to common areas on each floor and lobbies.

Those improvements, Chudnofsky said, included projects that would have eventually needed to be done, but the recertification requirement speeded up the process.

“We would have done some of them, but probably not at the same time,” he said.

The price tag for all the repairs came to $12 million. The board then implemented the $40,000-per-unit assessment, payable over the terms of the eight years to cover the loan.

That assessment, Chudnofsky says, is manageable for most of the unit owners and reasonable in light of assessments that other condos along the beach are making.

“It all comes down to, we did a pretty good job,” he said.

While some condominium communities have gone without reserves, the Coronado has been putting money aside over the years and has several million dollars in savings.

Still, with a reserve study mandated by the state by the end of the year, the board might need to require a small increase in quarterly maintenance to ensure enough funds are available to cover major costs.

One of the challenges for the board at the Coronado, where units sell in the $900,000 to $1 million-plus range, is the demand for improved amenities and services that comes with a younger and perhaps more affluent resident base.

“There is an appetite to raise the level of improvements,” Chudnofsky said. “New people want a higher lifestyle. They want a lobby area that will knock people’s socks off.”

They also want to convert tennis courts to pickleball courts at a cost of about $50,000. The cost of such improvements, Chudnofsky says, will have to come from the residents and be shared by all at a time when unit owners are dealing with charges they can’t avoid.

“These are expenses that will come out of our pockets,” he said.

Mayfair condo board President Joanne Chester says: ‘We are really hoping the state will somehow intercede to help us with this.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Nightmare numbers: Insurance up 300%, reserves at only 10%

Also in the special report: Condo costs: A sudden storm |South Palm Beach — Southgate|Highland Beach — Coronado

By Mary Hladky

Boca Raton’s Mayfair condominium is caught in a perfect storm.

Insurance rates have skyrocketed. New laws require condo association boards to conduct structural inspections and make any needed repairs. And by next year, Mayfair must fully fund its reserves to pay for them.

On the most basic level, that means the cost of living at the 60-year-old Boca Raton building at 1401 S. Ocean Blvd. is increasing substantially. Insurance costs alone jumped 300% over the last two years.

The Mayfair is hardly alone; condos across South Florida face similar financial pressures.

Mayfair President Joanne Chester said the board needs financial help, although no solutions from the state are imminent.

“We are really hoping the state will somehow intercede to help us with this,” she said. “It will be really difficult for people living here to continue paying the maintenance that has to go up.”

Perhaps the state could offer long-term low-interest or no-interest loans, she said, or provide financial assistance that condos could apply for.

“If the state would help us with that, that would be incredible,” she said. “Our state needs to help us. Our governor needs to step in.”

Mayfair’s board knows that insurance is all but impossible to come by. The previous insurer, Lloyd’s of London, pulled out of the market two years ago. The board used multiple insurers for one year because no single carrier would assume the entire risk. Mayfair is now insured by Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort.

“There are not many insurance companies that want to deal with this area,” Chester said. “Not many even want to get us a proposal.”

Faced with the ballooning cost, the condo board had no choice but to raise maintenance fees. In 2022, the quarterly rate per unit was $3,588. Last year, it was $4,709. This year, it is $5,038.

Owners “are not happy about that at all. It is more money out of their pocket,” Chester said. Owners also worry that the high fees will make it harder to sell their units.

But that’s just the tip of the financial iceberg.

A state law enacted after the catastrophic 2021 collapse of a condo in Surfside requires condo associations to conduct reserve studies every decade to make sure they have adequate resources to finance needed structural repairs. Starting next year, they will no longer be able to waive a requirement that they put money in reserves.

At present, Mayfair’s reserves are only 10% funded.

Board members are calculating how much full funding will cost as they begin drawing up the 2025 budget.

What Chester does know is this: “Now that we have to fully fund, that would be a giant increase in maintenance to pay for that. We really think the state should kick in and help with that,” she said.

And then there’s the additional requirement to inspect the five-story, 55-unit Mayfair.

The Mayfair submitted required structural and electrical engineering reports to the city in November and is awaiting word on whether the condo will get a building recertification — a designation that the building is safe.

Chester said the reports show that the Mayfair is structurally sound. But repairs, such as concrete restoration, will have to be made and she does not yet know the total cost.

Separately, the condo needs to be repainted.

Still to be determined is how owners will pay for reserves and repair costs.

Already, however, increased maintenance fees are proving too much for some owners.

Chester knows of people, including some at the Mayfair, who are selling their units “so they don’t have to face this financial hardship.”

Paradoxically, people are still buying units. Chester thinks that’s because some buyers are affluent, paying in cash, and are not bothered by the fees.

Others, though, “are coming from out of state and are not aware of everything that is being imposed on us.”

Chester foresees a grim future for many condos.

“My opinion is a lot of condominiums will have to be dissolved,” she said. “They will have to become apartment complexes. Most people in condos are retired. I think a lot of condos will be dissolved because owners can’t afford to live in them.”

Andrew Rivkin’s Ocean Ridge home on North Ocean Boulevard was derided by neighbors as ‘the parking garage’ as construction dragged on. Staff photo

After nine years of construction and angst, online casino magnate gets vital OK from town

By Jane Musgrave

It appears a nine-year nightmare for people who live in central Ocean Ridge will finally come to an end.

In a Feb. 23 email, Town Attorney Christy Goddeau said a temporary occupancy permit has been issued for a 13,000-square-foot oceanfront home that neighbors initially dubbed “the concrete bunker” before deciding “the parking garage” more accurately described the imposing white concrete behemoth just south of Town Hall.

If the owner, wealthy Canadian entrepreneur Andrew Rivkin, installs landscaping, a driveway gate and takes care of several other relatively minor unfinished items in 30 days, a final certificate will be issued for his home at 6273 N. Ocean Boulevard. That will allow Rivkin to avoid a threatened $5,000-a-day fine — up to a whopping $230,000 — that would have been assessed if he didn’t get a temporary certificate by March 15.

Rivkin’s attorneys in early February assured the Town Commission that the longest construction project in the town’s history was nearing completion.

“I think we’ve been rowing in the same direction which has been beneficial to everyone,” Miami attorney Stanley Price said, insisting that the latest of at least 10 requests for building permit extensions would be the last. “We fully intend to meet our obligation to the town.”

But, after nearly a decade of living in a noisy, dusty and traffic-choked construction zone, residents were dubious.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Lisa Ritota, who repeatedly called police when tractor-trailers, cement trucks and water tankers blocked her driveway on nearby Hudson Avenue.

“I’m not holding my breath and I haven’t been holding my breath for the last five years on this stupid thing.”

Jill Shibles, who lives next to Rivkin’s property, which he owns through Oceandell Holdings LLC, said the project has been stressful. Her outside furniture was constantly covered in dust. Outdoor conversations were impossible. Construction workers would routinely wander near and onto her property.

“This whole situation has been absurd and very disturbing to our community as a whole,” she said at one of numerous town meetings that were called to address the ongoing construction project.

Like other residents, Shibles said she can’t understand why the project was allowed to go on for so long.

Work began in May 2015 with the destruction of an existing estate home. The new home was supposed to be completed in at least two years. Instead, when Rivkin repeatedly missed town-imposed deadlines, he simply paid the price.

Although a full accounting has yet to be done, Rivkin was slapped with a $250-a-day fine that apparently has been growing since he missed a July 2021 drop-dead deadline. In 2022, he paid $44,515 to renew his building permits. Also, in a gesture of goodwill, he posted a $450,000 bond to prove he would honor his word and complete the house by June 2023.

This year, after he missed yet another deadline, he wrote a check for $50,000 to compensate the town for tax money it lost when he didn’t complete the house by Dec. 31, 2023.

While the threatened $5,000-a-day fines, part of an agreement he signed last year with town officials, seemed to get his attention, those who have faced off with him said that is unusual.

Like Ocean Ridge residents, others say they have learned that when it comes to building projects, little motivates the 54-year-old jet-setting, polo-loving father of two young children who is often referred to as the father of online gaming.

Andrew Rivkin intended to build a 1,900-square-foot boathouse at the dock beside his 14-bedroom manor on a lake in Ontario, embroiling a neighbor in a six-year dispute. The boathouse is yet to be built. Photo provided

A lake house in Canada
Lindsay Histrop, a Canadian lawyer who owns a 1,000-square-foot summer cottage next to Rivkin’s 14-bedroom estate along Lake Simcoe near Toronto, said she fought Rivkin’s 2017 plans to build a 1,900-square-foot boathouse to go with his existing 85-foot-long pier and breakwater on the environmentally sensitive waterway.

Officials in Innisfil initially rejected Rivkin’s proposal, with the town’s chief planning official calling it the “poster child for what a good shoreline is not” and a councilor saying, “I don’t like the way this was presented, I’ll call it shenanigans,” according to a 2018 article in the Innisfil Journal.

After a private meeting with Rivkin’s lawyers, town officials reversed course, approving the boathouse. Left on her own, Histrop unsuccessfully appealed the decision to various government agencies, citing safety and ecological concerns. Her crusade ended in February 2023 when her final appeal was rejected by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

In what Histrop described as hollow victories, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources found that Rivkin’s breakwater was not built according to the approved plans and fined the contractor, according to the Barrie Today newspaper. Histrop said the fine was $10,000.

Another agency, Transport Canada, charged with protecting navigation on Canada’s waterways, said in an email that it ordered Rivkin to remove some of the boulders that were not shown in the breakwater’s approved plans.

The boathouse hasn’t been built and Rivkin is currently listing the estate for rent for $82,500 to $88,776 a week. Histrop said she stopped following his boathouse plans, but suspects he will pursue them.

The boathouse battle took its toll, both emotionally and financially, Histrop said. “You do get worn down and it’s difficult when someone has bottomless resources,” she said.

Histrop, who summers at the cottage built by her grandfather, said she and her family would have been willing to compromise. They would have helped Rivkin find a better way to bring his fleet of speedboats to shore.

But, he never talked to her, appeared at government meetings or tried to address her concerns.

“It’s obnoxious when you want what you want and you don’t care what your neighbors think,” Histrop said. “He’s just a guy with lots of money and he’s used to getting what he wants.”

Her comments echo those made by Rivkin’s soon-to-be neighbors in Ocean Ridge. He never offered to meet with them to discuss their objections to the stark, white house that features a large gray triangle that looks more like it belongs in a shopping plaza than among Ocean Ridge estates, residents said. He never apologized for upending their lives with the nearly decade-long construction project.

“He just wants what he wants,” said Ritota. “He’s obviously got more money than God and doesn’t care about anyone else but himself.”

The man behind the house
Rivkin, through Price, declined comment for this story. But, in online posts, he has said he cares deeply about others and uses his wealth to give generously to various causes, such as combatting breast cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, particularly those that affect children.

In a 2013 post that came long after he made his first millions, Rivkin described how he uses polo to help others.

“As an athlete and innate competitor, I love playing the sport of polo for the highest honors of the season,” he wrote. “But what I love even more is when the competition in which

I participate is beneficial to charitable organizations and those in need.”

One of his other attorneys, Gerald Richman, said Rivkin, who spends much of his time at his home near London, didn’t intend the project to drag on for years. Richman described the delays largely on circumstances beyond Rivkin’s control.

Rivkin belatedly found out that FPL and Boynton Beach Utilities couldn’t provide sufficient service for the home without extending lines by drilling under State Road A1A, a process that required state and federal permits.

“Rivkin is just a victim here,” Richman said. “He’s cooperated fully. The client has literally done everything he can do.”

But, Richman acknowledged, Rivkin was also distracted. “He has a lot of things going on and it wasn’t something he was focused on,” Richman said.

Rivkin’s business interests are far-flung.  He and his brother are widely credited with helping create the $63.5 billion-a-year online casino gaming industry.

Using a technology they developed as teens working in their parents’ basement, in 1995 they launched CryptoLogic. While the publicly traded firm initially provided security for businesses doing online transactions, it quickly morphed into one of the first online gaming platforms.

Before the brothers stepped away from the company and cashed in their shares, it attracted 500,000 users worldwide and processed more than $4 billion in transactions.

But Rivkin wasn’t done. He co-founded FUN Technologies, which became the world’s largest online provider of casual games, such as Solitaire, and fantasy sports. When Rivkin and his partner sold it in 2006 it was valued at $484 million.

Since then, Rivkin has served as a consultant for Mood Media, a multifaceted international company that provides such services as music people listen to while on hold or while shopping. In 2009, he founded Rivkin Asset Management, which invested in real estate, media, technology and renewable energy.

Along the way, Rivkin learned to play polo. A regular at the Toronto Polo Club, he was also occasionally seen riding alongside professional players at the now defunct Gulfstream Polo Club in Wellington.

Histrop said Rivkin raised polo ponies on a farm he bought near his lakeside estate near Toronto. According to Florida records, he and a professional polo player formed Rivendell Polo Florida in 2015 for the purpose of “buying and selling horses and teaching lessons.” The company, which listed the address of his still uncompleted home, was dissolved two years later.

Lingering doubts
Ocean Ridge residents said they are frustrated not only by the delays but their inability to find out the reasons behind them. Some question whether the house meets the town’s codes.

Town Attorney Goddeau has repeatedly said that no rules were broken. “There were approvals by building officials, re-submissions for changes,” she said during a June 2023 meeting. “They’ve all been approved. Based on those approvals, they constructed what’s there today.”

If Rivkin completes the remaining punch list items by the end of March, she said she and town officials will address the outstanding code enforcement case. She didn’t respond to an email, seeking comment about the status of the $250-a-day fine. But, if it has been accumulating since July 2021, it could reach well over $200,000.

Vice Mayor Steve Coz said mistakes were made. But, he said, there was no easy way to rectify them. The town could have seized Rivkin’s $450,000 bond and used the money to demolish the house, as some residents demanded.

“But let’s face reality,” he said at one contentious meeting. “If the town ever went to level that property we’d be in a, what, five-year legal battle.”

Instead, he encouraged residents to embrace the unconventional house that is built around a 5,000-square-foot reflecting pool. “It’s stunning,” he said.

Further, he suggested, Rivkin should make peace with his neighbors.

“When you finally finish it out, you should have an open house for the town residents,” Coz told Rivkin’s attorneys.

The look-see would be illuminating to critics. “You can understand why it took so long to build,” Coz said.