$510 million trailer park deal hits wall

The would-be millionaires of Briny Breezes trailer park may have lost their big chance.

Owners of the town's 488 trailers nestled along the Atlantic Ocean overwhelmingly approved the sale of their community in January to Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments for more than $510 million.

Nearly each owner would have made more than $1 million, a tidy profit considering some bought their properties a decade ago for less than $40,000.

But Ocean Land now says the contract is off after the town's board of directors refused to extend an August deadline for the company to review plans to convert Briny Breezes into a wealthier community.

Logan Pierson, Ocean Land's vice president of acquisitions, said the extension would have allowed the company to confer with neighboring communities.

"We've already spent about $5 million in terms of outright expenses, research, land-use attorneys and engineers, not including our lost opportunity time," Pierson said Monday. "Frankly, if you were in our office today, it looks like there's a funeral."

A deal may still happen, Pierson and the town's mayor said.

"I don't think it's dead in the water," Mayor Roger Bennett said.

The problem now is that many of the town's residents are snowbirds who head north in the summer. A vote on any new contract couldn't take place until most return in the winter, Bennett said.

Ocean Land planned to turn the community of 488 trailers into about 900 multimillion-dollar condo units, a high-end marina and a 300-room luxury hotel. The proposal was scaled back from an earlier version, but Palm Beach County officials and area town leaders remained concerned about such a high-density development coming into the already cluttered coastline.

The developers must rely on water and sewer services, along with fire protection, from neighboring Boynton Beach.

"We're not against any kind of development there. We're just in favor of a development that works for the surrounding area and this was just very massive," said Boynton Beach Mayor Jerry Taylor.

While the developers don't need approval from the surrounding towns, Ocean Land said the deal would work only if it had the agreement and cooperation of area leaders.

Briny Breezes, a 43-acre down-market relic of old Florida, is one of the last coastal trailer-park communities between Miami and Palm Beach and is surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes and lushly landscaped yards.

The decision to sell the property divided the town, with some angry residents posting signs on their lawns encouraging neighbors to vote against it, but the sale was still approved overwhelmingly.

Some in the community had bought their homes for as little as $35,000. The deal to sell would make nearly every resident a millionaire.

Briny Breezes resident Peter Kendrigan, 71, said he wasn't disappointed by the setback in the sale, even though he voted in favor of it and stood to make more than $1 million.

"Most people are expecting us to be very upset," Kendrigan said. "But we're not upset because Briny Breezes will sell one of these days, and for now, we're right on the beach, we've got a place to live, so we're happy."

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On the Net:

Town of Briny Breezes: http://www.brinybreezes.com/

Ocean Land Investments: http://www.oceanland.com/