Over the last two years, Palm Beach County property records show, Fane Lozman paid $824,000 for five parcels of submerged land in Riviera Beach, totaling 24.46 acres. The land sits in a large lagoon between the mainland and Singer Island. It's in ...

Just a few paces from busy Brickell Avenue, Ishmael Bermudez crouches behind his little clapboard house and drinks serenely from a hose lowered into the ancient bedrock. Skyscrapers drape his property in shadows. Across the street, a Metrorail tra...