Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By David Breen

Published March 29, 2015

Owners of the beleaguered Blossom Park condominium complex won a legal victory Thursday when a judge allowed them to retake control from a court-appointed receiver.

Attorney Mark Lippman represents about 30 owners at the complex at 1851 W. Landstreet Road, just north of the BeachLine Expressway and east of Orange Blossom Trail about a mile south of Florida Mall. He expects the owners to be back in control any day now after about five years of receivership by property manager Frank Barber.

Owners have been critical of Barber's financial-record keeping and say he's failed to make repairs to the complex, leading to its condemnation by Orange County as unsafe. "The judge has paved the way for us to remove Mr. Barber, give the property back to the owners and get repairs going," Lippman said. Barber did not immediately return a call seeking comment. In an earlier interview, he said he was limited in his ability to make repairs by the amount of money that was coming in from owners. But Lippmann said the documents provided by Barber don't shed much light on the complex's finances.

  
"He dropped off five years of stuff that's very disorganized," Lippman said. "I'm probably going to have to give it to a forensic accountant."
Larry Agosto, who owns a unit at Blossom Park, said he and his fellow owners are pleased to be able to retake control of their property. They've formed an ownership board, and the next step will be to hire engineering companies and get repairs under way as quickly as possible.

Agosto said he's spoken with about 100 owners, and all of them have been willing to contribute $4,000 each to fund the work.

"We're getting on the right track," Agosto said.

Those repairs are likely to be costly. A county-hired engineer found extensive degradation of the seven-building complex's stairs and walkways. Orange County has been mounting an intensive effort to move residents out because of concerns of imminent danger of collapse.

County code-enforcement officials have also been critical of what they say is inaction by Barber in the face of those safety concerns.
"Because of the state Mr. Barber allowed the building to deteriorate into, their investments are basically worthless," Lippman said of his clients. "You're sitting on a pile of rubble that you can't do anything with until you get these things fixed."

The complex, which has 345 units, was built in the '70s as a motel and converted to condos in 2003. In recent years it's become a high-crime area, with three fatal shootings in 2014.
But Lippman said owners are optimistic they can turn Blossom Park's fortunes around.

"At one point this was a good condo, and the owners are interested in getting it back to the way it was," he said.