A defiant South Florida homeowner refused to sell to a developer and now finds his one-story house dwarfed by a $600 million complex and surrounded by parking garages, office buildings and even a 14-story hotel, according to a report.
"Just imagine ... that your house was in the middle of Manhattan surrounded by high-rise buildings," Orlando Capote, 68, told NPR. "That's what it's like."
Capote's Mediterranean-style, two-bedroom home is the only one still standing in the Coral Gables neighborhood that used to be filled with such homes.
His family emigrated from Cuba to Miami when Capote was a teenager and bought the house in 1989, he said.
Then, in 2004, a real estate developer began purchasing properties for a new development.
"But at that time, my father was very ill and we had to take care of him," he told NPR. "And there was no way that I could look after my father, sell the house and go find another house."
When the Sunshine State's real estate bubble burst, the developer went bankrupt.
Over the years, other homes in the neighborhood were demolished.
Another developer, Agave Holdings, with eyes toward an even more elaborate development began buying properties.
The developer's representatives approached Capote in 2013 about selling and presented some documents to sign.
After reading them, Capote said he became irate.
"The wording implied that we were going to sell them the property. And they could represent us in the permitting process for the project," Capote said.
Even after he rejected the deal, Capote said the developer tried to sweeten the deal, offering to exchange his home for one a block away, buy him a car and give him $500,000.
Capote said he never replied. NPR said Agave did not respond to requests for interviews.
Capote has never given up on the fight against the developer.
Capote said he filed complaints with the city during construction of the development as cranes towered over his home and the street in front of his house was closed for two years.
He said the development violated fire codes by shutting down the road.
A city official visited the site and declared it safe, he said.
At one point, his mother became ill and he called fire rescue.
Responders tried to take his mother out the back door, but were unable.
"They had to take her out the front door, put her on a gurney, 210 feet to the fire rescue vehicle, because that was how close the vehicle could get" because of the street being closed, Capote said. "What more proof do you need that the city violated the fire codes to benefit the developer?"
His mother never returned to the home.
"The laws and rules are supposed to be enforced equally to all parties. And in this case, it was not," he said. "The city repeatedly enforced the laws and rules to the benefit of the developer at our expense."
