13th Floor wins approval for 335-home development on Tamarac golf property

Developer 13th Floor Homes won approval for a 335-home development on a shuttered golf course property in Tamarac, after overcoming an alleged extortion scheme that threatened to derail the project.

The Tamarac City Commission voted 3-2 early Wednesday morning to grant final approval to a rezoning and land use change for the Woodlands Country Club, just west of the Florida Turnpike on the south side of Commercial Boulevard.

Both the rezoning from “recreation” (RC) to “residential estate” (RE) and land use change from “commercial recreation” to “low (5) residential” apply to 165 acres of the 275-acre Woodlands property.

The city commission also voted 3-2 on first reading to negotiate a development agreement with 13th Floor for its planned residential redevelopment of two 18-hole golf courses and a clubhouse at Woodlands.

The development agreement with Tamarac would require 13th Floor Homes to build as many as 335 single-family homes on at least 165 acres of the 275-acre property. Estimated asking prices for the homes would range from $700,000 to more than $1 million, Scott Backman, an attorney for 13th Floor, told commissioners.

The agreement also would require 13th Floor to maintain at least 160 acres of open space at Woodlands. Other amenities would include a swimming pool and a new clubhouse.

In addition, the agreement would require 13th Floor Homes to contribute $925,000 to homeowner associations whose members live near Woodlands, $670,000 to the city to support affordable housing (or $2,000 for each house planned at Woodlands), and $150,000 for a street improvement study, among other payments.

The rezoning and land use change culminated a yearslong effort by 13th Floor Homes to redevelop Woodlands that began in 2017, Backman said. Outreach meetings with residents in the Woodlands area led to more than 100 revisions to 13th Floor’s residential redevelopment of the Woodlands golf courses, he said.

Among other revisions, 13th Floor gradually reduced the density of its Woodlands project to 335 houses from its original plan for 795 residential units, including 315 houses and 480 townhouses and apartments, Backman said.

“Our team has worked collaboratively with the community over the past several years to bring this plan to fruition, and we are excited to see development commence,” 13th Floor Homes said in a statement on Wednesday.

About 890 single-family homes surround the golf courses at Woodlands Country Club, which began operation in the early 1970s. Many of the owners of those homes lined up to publicly criticize 13th Floor’s redevelopment project during the Tamarac commission meeting, which began at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and ended at 2:11 a.m. Wednesday.

Among heated moments during the marathon debate over Woodlands, one Tamarac resident paused while addressing the city commission to exchange raised middle fingers with another resident at the meeting.

About 12 years ago, the declining popularity of golf led members of Woodlands Country Club to sell the golf property to ClubLink US Corporation, a Pompano Beach-based company that owns a network of golf courses available to its membership.

ClubLink paid $4.2 million in 2011 for the Woodlands golf property at 4600 Woodlands Boulevard in Tamarac, property records show.

ClubLink now has a contract to sell Woodlands to 13th Floor Homes for an undisclosed price, according to the land use and rezoning applications that ClubLink filed with the city.

Woodlands Country Club closed in 2020 during the pandemic. The club is now permanently closed, according to a recorded message on its telephone.

During its attempt to gain city approval for its planned redevelopment of Woodlands, 13th Floor overcame an alleged attempt by a father and son to extort the company’s managing principal, Arnaud Karsenti, by falsely claiming that the company built homes on other golf properties that were contaminated.

Bruce Chait and his son, Shawn, both face one count each of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and organized scheme to defraud, and six counts of extortion. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested the father and son in March 2021 and charged them with harassing Karsenti in an extortion scheme that began in 2012.

That year, the Chaits allegedly started threatening to file lawsuits against 13th Floor with false claims of arsenic contamination on some of the company’s development sites, unless Karsenti paid them $1 million.

A decade ago, Karsenti foreclosed on a loan secured by a golf course that he seized from the Chait family, which led Bruce Chait to harbor “ill will” toward Karsenti, according to an FDLE affidavit.

Bruce Zimet, an attorney for the Chaits, told The Real Deal on Monday that the father and son are free on bond and the state’s case against them is in the discovery stage.

In September 2021, the Tamarac City Commission fired former city manager Michael Cernech after the FDLE accused him of working with the Chaits in their extortion scheme. Cernech was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering.