Article Courtesy of The South Florida Business Journal

By Brian Bandell

Published October 5, 2014

An apartment complex in West Palm Beach that failed to complete its condominium conversion and was declared a public nuisance could be sold in Bankruptcy Court.

HFAH Clear Lake LLC filed Chapter 11 in Palm Beach County on Sept. 30 listing $4.23 million in assets and $30.1 million in liabilities. The company, headed by Hawthorne, N.Y.-based Homes for America Holdings and Daniel G. Hayes, owns the shuttered apartment complex on 11 acres at 719 Executive Center Drive.

The goal of the Chapter 11 filing is to sell the property, according to court filings. It is delinquent on taxes and has accumulated $2.5 million in fines from the city, which declared it a public nuisance.

The bankruptcy filing reads like a case study of everything that went wrong in the recession.

HFAH bought the property for $14.5 million in 2005 with the intent of converting the 180 apartments to condos and building more amenities. The existing four buildings were to be torn down. The residents left, but the work stalled after the developer was unable to pre-sell the units because of the real estate crash, Hayes said.  Read more: