The price of paradise
To the editor:
It’s been 15 months since we learned the devastating news that Beattie Development was robbing Peter to pay Paul literally and figuratively. The writing was on the wall several weeks before Skip Thompson, my husband, went to Florida to meet Paul Beattie to discuss a lien that had recently been put on our property. We had already given him more than $350,000 and what was to be our forever home had completed work that would maybe equate to $150,000.
In preparation for the meeting, Skip asked me to make a few phone calls to other suppliers who had served us with notices to owner. My heart sank when the first person I was able to reach said, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this” there was a long pause, “Beattie Development has not paid their bills with us since last year.”
When Skip met with Paul, it was clear that he was desperate to get the check for our next draw, another $200,000. Skip could sense the urgency in his quest for this payment and upon leaving there, decided to visit some of the other homes in the community being built by Beattie Development and maybe speak with those families about their experiences. What he learned in that very short time, is that Beattie Development was in serious financial difficulty. It was something that so many others in the Cape Coral community already knew.
After that weekend, we put our life on hold, sold our residence in Georgia, and moved into temporary residencies while I ran our 18-year-old business remotely. Skip focused solely on getting our home completed. Fifteen months later and we now reside in our “Beattie” home. Unfortunately, we have yet to receive any of the license board insurance payout that we have filed for or to have a single officer in Cape Coral or Lee County call us to inquire about the facts pertaining to our case against Paul Beattie. We feel confident the police are actively working on this investigation but are very frustrated over the time it is taking and their lack of communication with the victims.
Sadly, there is a side of this story that no one seems to report on, how and why this continues to happen in the state of Florida? It is clear now, hindsight being what it is and all, that many in this community knew about the financial troubles Beattie Development was in.
I vividly remember sitting with the pool company, the lighting company, the appliance company, and others. With pure excitement, picking out the tiles, fixtures, lights, and paint colors from suppliers that Beattie Development sent us to. I even remember the sales agents that worked for him on commission, showing us the model and answering all our questions. Most, if not all these people knew that there was something seriously wrong with the financial integrity of this company they were representing and working with.
Why didn’t they say something? This question has been going through my mind for the last fifteen months, why? Not a whisper. Hey, they could have said, make sure your builder is paying their bills on time, wink wink.
From the perspective of the homeowner, it never occurred to us that these sub-contractors would continue to work with someone that was not paying them. Yet nothing was said. They could have been worried about Paul Beattie suing for liability. Having heard stories of how he strong-armed people on social media, that is a very real scenario. However, if they knew, why did they keep doing business with him? Ethically, it would have been the right thing to do. Stop taking customers from Beattie Development. They didn’t, though. Like the pool contractor, they knew that the lien laws in the state of Florida protected them. Not the homeowners, but the contractors and sub-contractors. Sure, it could take them a while to collect their money, but if the homeowner didn’t pay up, often twice as most had already paid Beattie Development, they could collect via the courts. Remember, we are talking about homeowners that have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into constructing their dream homes. If they didn’t pay up, they would risk losing everything.
It really came down to one simple thing. Companies and individuals that were owed money by Beattie Development wanted us to make that next draw and they didn’t care if that meant we lost another $200,000. They knew that our loss would be their gain, as that’s what really happens when you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. All the contractors, subcontractors and others that knew about his financial distress, did not care about the homeowners, they cared just about getting what they could the same way that Paul Beattie cared about getting what he could.
I’ve heard talk about the “price of paradise” in our beautiful city. Besides the hurricanes, the high property costs, the long waits at restaurants during season and not to mention the jammed parking lot at Costco on a Saturday morning, the real price of paradise in Cape Coral Florida is the loss of our integrity. If you knew something, you should have said something. Your silence may have protected you or your business but was the cost of that silence worth your honor?
Pamela Thompson
Cape Coral