Step a little closer, though, and realtors' key lock boxes can be seen on many of the townhouse doors, indicating that they are for sale. It's possible to peek in the ground-floor window of some units and see bare carpet and open closets. One door bears an orange flier announcing that the property is vacant and abandoned; another broadcasts an eviction.
Four years ago, when the complex was under construction, developer Shelby Homes was experiencing such a sales boom that it had to raise prices and cut back on ads for some of its projects. Villa Medici was supposed to bring a "new level of luxury" to Fort Lauderdale, with some units boasting private elevators. As recently as March 2008, one townhouse sold for $675,000.
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But the complex has since become an uncomfortable example of how crime and a collapsing economy can sabotage a development. Andrea Stern began renting in Villa Medici in May 2008 and witnessed the downfall firsthand. (Disclosure: Stern works in the advertising department at New Times.) First, she was robbed. A burglar broke in through an open garage door while she and her roommate were sleeping and stole her Toyota Scion, two Wiis, her laptop, even her vodka. It was awful, but she acknowledged she and her roommate shared some of the blame for leaving the entrance to the house unlocked.
Then on September 18, her roommate woke her up to report that police had barricaded the neighborhood. The burglaries had become violent.
According to a police report, Richard Shepherd was upstairs in his townhouse watching TV when he heard a doorknob turn. His dog started barking and ran downstairs. Shepherd, 26, told police he figured it was a friend coming to visit, letting himself in because he'd left the door unlocked. Just as he was getting up to investigate, he heard a gunshot, then the pitiful sound of his dog whimpering.
As a panicked Shepherd called police, the man who shot his dog had already found more victims. A few doors down, Viviana Garguilo and 11-year-old Valeria Balcarce had just pulled into their garage and were getting out of the car when a man with a gun tried to push Valeria away from the driver's-side door, according to a police report. Valeria and Garguilo started screaming. Richard Garguilo ran downstairs to find out what was causing all the commotion and opened the door just long enough for his wife and daughter to escape inside. Then he heard a pop. Apparently the burglar, unable to steal the first car, had put a bullet in the windshield of Garguilo's Toyota.
(Neither Shepherd nor the Garguilos could be reached for comment.)
Watching Shepherd's dog be taken away in a body bag, Stern knew she'd had enough of Villa Medici. "After that, a lot of people got scared," she says. She moved out that month.
Since then, Fort Lauderdale police records show there haven't been any more burglaries reported at the complex. Most of the calls to police now are for cars to be towed. But that doesn't mean the fear has disappeared.
On a recent afternoon, a 22-year-old student at the Fort Lauderdale Institute of Art was walking out her front door at Villa Medici with two tiny, feather-duster-sized dogs in tow. She moved in last November, just after the burglaries, and has been frightened by stories of the crimes.
"We are still nervous about it, to have all that stuff happen," said the woman, who declined to give her name. She and her roommates keep their doors locked and the garage shut, and she's grateful for the security guard who watches over the complex on weekends.
She was attracted to Villa Medici because it's close to the beach and the Galleria Mall. But she plans to leave when she graduates and her lease ends this fall.
"It is very quiet," she says. "I guess it would be better if more people lived here. At night, I don't like it."
Another neighbor, who was checking her mailbox near the pool, put it even more succinctly: "We have been burglarized," she said. "It's not a safe area."
Whether Villa Medici's woes can be blamed on the economy, property management, or an unfortunate location is hard to say. Stephen Ulrich, a real estate agent with Condo Vultures Realty, says location woes have cursed many projects that were planned during the boom. Developers counted on their homes benefiting from the revitalization of entire areas. Then the neighborhood face-lift never materialized. "If everything would have continued the way it was going, it would've been a great area," Ulrich says. "But unfortunately everything stopped."
In the past ten months, there have been at least 15 foreclosure filings in the 118-unit Villa Medici, according to BlockShopper South Florida. In early May, 19 townhouses were listed for sale, including several three-bedroom units listed between $161,000 and $199,000. Many were short sales, illustrating the desperation of both the owners and the banks involved, which must be willing to accept less than the original mortgage price.
No one knows how long developments such as Tao and CityPlace South Tower will be able to avoid this fate, with their prices high and buyers unwilling or unable to close. Even vulture investors, eager to snag deals in this beleaguered market, are waiting for prices to fall before they pounce. Real estate analyst McCabe estimates that it could be five years before large high-rises have more occupied units than vacancies. And it will be at least a year until prices bottom out, he says. Until then, price cuts, lease-to-own deals, and cheap rents abound.
