BRINY BREEZES, Fla. (Jan. 2) - The owners of nearly 500 mobile homes in one of the last waterfront trailer-park towns in South Florida stand to become instant millionaires if they agree to sell to a developer. But some are holding out, saying there are things more important than money. "You just can't buy a way of life," said Tom Byrne, a 68-year-old retired sales executive from New York who doesn't want to sell even though he would make a little over $1 million on the trailer and site he bought two years ago for $150,000. "This is my home."
Briny Breezes is a down-market relic of old Florida, surrounded by glamorous multimillion-dollar homes and splashy high-rise condos.
The Briny Breezes brochure calls it a "self-governed mobile home community of kindred souls." Residents of the Palm Beach County town cruise the narrow streets on golf carts, passing palm trees and tiny, neatly manicured yards. They wave to each other and chat about the next neighborhood outing - water aerobics at the community pool, shuffleboard near the clubhouse, bowling night.
With 600 feet of oceanfront property and an additional 1,100 feet along the Intracoastal Waterway, real estate like this in southeastern Florida is pure gold.
Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments has big plans for the property if the deal goes through, as many residents are certain will happen. The company envisions about 900 low-rise multimillion-dollar condo units, a high-end marina and a 300-room luxury hotel.
There really is no other piece of property like this in Florida," said Logan Pierson, the company's vice president of acquisitions.
The 43-acre town sprouted from a strawberry farm in the 1920s, back when Florida's charm was its subtropical weather and quiet, coastal bliss - long before the days of Art Deco, "Miami Vice" and Walt Disney World.
