Boca Raton American Media Inc.’s building reopened
February 23rd, 2007
Tabloid publisher American Media Inc.’s former headquarters was reopened Thursday after years of decontamination from an anthrax attack that killed a photo editor six years ago. Boca Raton Mayor Steve Abrams said the building’s opening sends a message to those who carried out the still-unsolved attack on the former offices of the National Enquirer, Sun and Globe newspapers.
“We will not be intimidated by terrorism in Boca Raton or anywhere else as Americans,” Abrams said.
File cabinets line the newsrooms still marked with Sun and Globe signs. Some file drawers still bear labels like “JFK JR.” A painted Manhattan street mural and display and a newsstand is on the third floor. The building was the nation’s first target in the anthrax mailings that killed five people across the nation and started a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bob Stevens, an AMI photo editor, died Oct. 5, 2001, after being exposed to anthrax in an envelope mailed to the building, which was then quarantined. The publisher moved away and the cleanup effort began in July 2004.
Developer David Rustine bought the building in April 2003 for $40,000 from the media company because he liked its location. He will have his own offices there but does not yet have tenants for the 67,200-square-foot structure. Rustine said he and his wife, Rebecca, spent millions of dollars on the decontamination process and on maintaining the building. Rebecca Rustine said the building is safe and brought her two poodles to the opening.
“I would invite my family in here,” she said. “I have my pets in here.”
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
Starting to plan for Spring Home Cleanup?
February 23rd, 2007
A great time to start planning for that spring clean-up is now. Spring is just around the corner and here is a list of some ideas to get you started with your own Spring Cleaning Plan.
1. Thoroughly dust your home and clean air conditioning and heating filters, ducts, and vents to decrease your exposure to pollens and other airborne allergens.
2. Dust down the ceiling and corners of walls, the ceiling fans, all the pictures and paintings on the walls. Everything you would normally avoid because it doesn’t get “dirty”.
3. Clean all mold and mildew from bathrooms, the kitchen areas other damp areas with non-toxic cleaning products.
4. Inspect outdoor playground equipment and be sure that it remains sturdy and in good repair.
5. Change the batteries in your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.
6. Take down curtains and blinds to wash or have cleaned.
7. Clean out kitchen cabinets. All those odds and ends and things you could not find for the last 6 months are probably packed all the way in the back of those cabinets.
8. Collect old batteries throughout the house for disposal in a battery recycling or hazardous waste center.
9. Sort winter clothes for tossing, donating, tag sales, or storage.
10. Set aside garage sale items, drop off donations, and haul garbage to the dump or dumpster.
An excellent way to get all the supplies you need beforehand is to check out Home Depot’s coupons and specials before you head down to your local store. It’s fast, safe and convenient to shop their website online and you get the added benefit of savings.
Group representing small businesses oppose GOP plan to end property taxes
February 23rd, 2007
TALLAHASSEE · The head of a group representing small Florida businesses opposed the House Republican leadership’s plan to exchange lower property taxes for a higher sales tax, in testimony Thursday before the Senate Finance and Tax Committee.
Members of the National Federation of Independent Business are worried that such a swap, while providing short-term property tax reductions, would lead to higher levies on commercial property, NFIB state director Allen Douglas said.
House GOP leaders on Wednesday unveiled a two-part plan that includes a proposed state constitutional amendment that would abolish taxes on homestead property — primary homes — while increasing the state’s sales tax from 6 percent to 8.5 percent. The increase would go to local governments to partly offset property tax losses.
The proposed amendment would also limit state and local revenue increases to a factor equal to population growth and inflation, starting from 2000-01 budget figures. That cap is expected to also result in significant savings for owners of second homes, rental and commercial property.
Local government bodies, though, would be able to exceed the cap by unanimous vote.
“Over the long term, as local governments need revenues, simply with a unanimous vote they could get around the revenue caps and begin to tax businesses more and more,” Douglas said.
His members, instead, favor Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s proposal to place a 3 percent cap on annual tax increases for commercial and other non-homestead properties similar to the ceiling provided for homeowners under the Save Our Homes Amendment.
That endorsement came with a caveat, though.
“We do have the concern, however, that in the future years that would cause inequities among businesses,” Douglas said.
That’s what has happened with the Save Our Homes amendment. It has resulted in new homeowners and owners of second homes paying taxes much higher than those of Floridians who have occupied their primary homes for many years.
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, suggested that abolishing taxes on homesteads under the amendment proposed by House Republicans would exacerbate the differences, particularly for “snowbirds” from northern climes who buy second homes to winter in Florida.
Deutch raised the issue in a question to Penny Herman, chairwoman of the Florida Association of Realtors’ tax study committee.
“We’ve been hearing from our Realtors in South Florida, this has definitely been an issue with their clients,” Herman said. “Snowbirds, as we call them, are more alarmed and they are speaking louder.”
Herman, a former Tallahassee mayor, said she couldn’t speak for the association on the House plan. Association lobbyist Trey Price said only that Realtors were intrigued by it.
The Senate committee has not yet drafted a tax reform plan. It will wait until after a series of public hearings around the state are completed, said its chairman, Sen. Mike Haridolopos, R-Melbourne.
Haridolopos said the goal is to lower property taxes that have jumped in the past couple years largely because of climbing property values. That has caused an outcry for reform and lawmakers have been peppered with a variety of proposals, although the House Republicans’ plan is the boldest advanced so far.
It would cut local government spending by almost $5.8 billion either through passage of the proposed amendment or a state law. The law would include the local government revenue cap but would not increase the sales tax nor abolish property tax on homesteads.
Could Condos Rise Above The Vizcaya Museum
February 22nd, 2007
Miami city commissioners are still going ahead with a controversial construction project that would offer visitors from around the world who enter the Vizcaya musem a view of condos rising above its manicured tree-lined surroundings.
A proposed 300-unit luxury condo complex on nearby Mercy Hospital is steadily moving ahead but resistance is beginning to mount.
Vizcaya was the winter palace of American industrialist James Deering from Christmas 1916 until his death in 1925. The home\’s design was to duplicate that of an 17th century Italian estate. It has thirty-four decorated rooms with antiques furnishings dating from the 15th through 19th centuries. It has expansive majestic gardens that are a mixture of Renaissance Italian and French designs.
Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments is partnering with developer Jorge Perez\’s Related Group to build the nearby condos on 6.7 acres of prime waterfront land that has been part of the Mercy Hospital medical campus.
Related Group executive Bill Thompson counters that the project has been downsized to appease the community — from 1,000 units to 300. Two of the three towers have been reduced in height, with only one still the original 410 feet. Thompson says Vizcaya won\’t suffer at the hands of his project, and calls the museum\’s architectural drawing - against the project - grossly inaccurate.
\’\'Vizcaya is in an urban area,\’\’ Thompson said, like New York\’s Central Park. The fact that part of a high-rise would be visible from a dip in Vizcaya\’s tree line wouldn\’t ruin the experience, he said.
As a neighborly gesture, the company promises to add trees to the museum land that would screen some — but not all — of its project, known as 300 Grove Bay Residences.
North of Vizcaya, Thompson notes, are the towers of Brickell — modern buildings, visible from a portion of the museum site, that haven\’t kept visitors from coming.
Condo opponents call the Brickell comparison irrelevant, saying those towers are farther away. What\’s at stake now, they say, is one of Vizcaya\’s signature views — that overlooking its famed gardens.
The City Commission voted 3-2 in January to tentatively approve a key rezoning sought by the developers.
A final commission vote on the rezoning is scheduled for later this month, although additional city approvals are necessary before breaking ground.
Office project is so green it’s ‘platinum’
February 21st, 2007
It’s as green as you can get.
Overture Development Group LLC of Celebration intends to build a 130,000-square-foot office building that would be rated a ‘Platinum Building’ — tops in environmentally sensitive development — by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The Conservatory, as the building would be known, is to be under construction in Celebration, in Osceola County near Walt Disney World, sometime before the end of March, with completion set for next year.
The six-story building will use 35 percent less energy than a conventional office. Features include a ‘green roof’ that will capture rainwater in cisterns for later use in toilets and the irrigation system. That water also will be used to assist in cooling the building.
Other conservation-minded and environmentally friendly measures include a parking lot of pervious concrete paving, which will allow rainwater to recharge the aquifer rather than enter storm drains or the sewer system.
Big deal Ron Rogg and Mike Phipps of CB Richard Ellis represented the seller, Professors Capital, in the sale of Lake Emma Corporate Park in Lake Mary. The complex, with 241,032 square feet of rentable space, sold for $24.95 million.
SOURCE: Sentinel
Scripps project moves ahead
February 21st, 2007
Exactly a year after a divided Palm Beach County Commission approved the final siting of Scripps Florida in Jupiter, the ground’s been cleared, concrete columns have sprouted and officials are for the first time in years looking forward to the project’s completion.
‘It’s been a year, but there was so much work to do to get to this point in a year that it really is a fantastic story,’ said Assistant County Administrator Shannon Laroque. ‘For all the negative that happened to Scripps in the past, this can be very positive.’
Last Valentine’s Day, county commissioners narrowly passed a vote to put Scripps on the 30-acre site in Abacoa, adjacent to its temporary laboratories at Florida Atlantic University.
The fractious vote, which favored Jupiter over Gov. Jeb Bush’s endorsed site in Boca Raton, was the last tremor in the earthquake-riddled deal to bring the California-based institute to Palm Beach County.
The county and the state had already committed $700 million in the deal, which nearly fell apart in late 2005 when a federal judge ordered construction at Mecca Farms halted citing inadequate environmental review.
Three new sites were proposed, and Abacoa won out. Emotions were raw, exhaustion heavy as staff worked with Scripps to draw up a brand-new contract, Laroque recalled Wednesday.
‘The only thing we had on Feb. 14, 2006, was policy direction by the county commissioners,’ Laroque said.
‘It was so politically charged,’ she added. ‘It’s so nice to be able to stand there and look at everything today.’
Negotiating a new contract took until June. In addition, all the plans had to be redesigned and new permits secured. The county had to purchase the neighboring Briger property for added lab space and drew up interlocal agreements with communities slated to host the bioresearch cluster that was to grow up around Scripps.
But Wednesday, Laroque and construction managers stood in front of tractors on a site where the three buildings that will make up the Scripps Research Institute were demarcated on the soft, upturned earth.
Concrete already covers the column rebars of Building A, which will house drug discovery. Building C, the biomedical research building, was a stage behind, awaiting concrete, and Building B, the administration building that will also house the advanced technology that Scripps boasts gives it unrivaled research abilities, is still at ground level.
In all, 351,803 square feet will be built for about $187 million. If all goes according to plan, the project will be completed by December 2008. A loaded promise coming from the project that 18 months ago was nearly buried.
‘Everybody had to be aligned on the same page to make this happen,’ Laroque said. ‘It’s pure construction implementation at this rate. I don’t see anything in the way at this point.’
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
Builder confidence highest since June ‘06
February 20th, 2007
Northeast, South see biggest increase in buyer demand.
Buyer demand boosted home builder confidence five points in February to its highest level in eight months, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
Based on a monthly survey that measures builder perceptions and expectations for home sales, the index climbed to 40 in February from a reading of 35 in January. An index rating above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good, while a rating below 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as poor.
“Builders are still cautious as they continue to manage their inventory, but their assessments of the demand side of the single-family market are improving,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a home builder from Playa del Rey, Calif. “Every component of the February HMI — present home sales, sales expectations for the next six months and buyer traffic — showed a significant positive uptick in February.”
Lower energy prices, favorable mortgage rates and solid growth in employment and household income have all contributed to the recent stabilization of home-buyer demand, said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “In addition, builders continue to offer substantial sales incentives to move their product and limit cancellations, which has helped to firm up buyer demand.”
All three component indexes registered improvement in February, with the index gauging current single-family home sales rising six points to 42 and the component measuring the traffic of prospective buyers gaining five points to 31. Of particular note, the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months jumped over the 50 threshold for the first time since last June, posting a seven-point gain to 55.
The HMI rose in all four regions in February, with the Northeast posting the biggest gain of eight points to 46. Five-point gains were registered in the Midwest and South, to 29 and 46, respectively, while the West moved up two points to 35.
“Builders are becoming increasingly convinced that the abrupt downslide in home sales is in their rear view mirrors and they see better times as they look at the road ahead,” Seiders said.
SOURCE: Inman
NAR issues guidance on listings content copyright
February 20th, 2007
The National Association of Realtors is offering sample contracts that are designed to enhance copyright protection for property information created and collected by its members. The documents include sample agreements between multiple listing services and participants, brokers and agents, and MLSs with vendors and other third parties.
John Rees, a lawyer who worked with the association this year to hold workshops, gather input and produce the sample contracts, said he believes there is some urgency for industry participants to better protect copyrighted information associated with property listings, as Internet technologies can spawn a wide array of business models.
“The biggest threat is probably what hasn’t been developed yet,” said Rees, a lawyer with the Callister Nebeker & McCullough law firm in Salt Lake City. “The only limit on the Internet pretty much is creativity.” There are many third parties that “would love to have access to a feed so they could market their own products,” and there are business models for companies that seek “to use the listings for the sole purpose of providing referrals back to the listing brokers. It’s just a matter of if the MLS has in place appropriate protections.”
The online display and sharing of property listings information is a hot topic in the industry, as issues over the ownership and control of this information are at the core of an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department has brought against NAR. Also, more brokers have been seeking greater control over MLS operations and how listings data is handled.
Rees said the creation of the sample documents “is not a huge undertaking but it really ought to be done to provide legal integrity, avoid liability and have the systems or the structure so that when the problem arises they can deal with it,” he said. “Most industries that are on the Internet have already kind of figured this stuff out. I think the (real estate) industry has lagged — it’s time to catch up on this one. (This effort) is recognizing that the MLS is sitting on a very valuable resource to all of its subscribers.”
While most larger MLSs have already taken steps to protect copyrighted property information, he said fewer mid-sized MLSs have implemented thorough copyright protections, and “smaller MLSs are scrambling trying to figure out what’s going on.” He added, “A lot of MLSs are like a deer in the headlights — (saying), ‘Wow, I didn’t know about any of this stuff.’”
Adopting clear agreements on the use of property information can help to prevent future infringement claims among the many parties who create or display listings information, he said.
“If an MLS grants a license to the listings to a third party and there are some infringing materials in the listings — and that vendor gets sued for infringement — (the vendor) is going to come back to the MLS, that MLS is going to go back to the broker, and the broker is going to be stuck with the liability,” Rees said, unless the broker has extended copyright agreements to agents and those who supplied copyrightable content to the agents.
“They need to finish the chain back up to the agent and seller and photographer and anyone who’s creating listing content,” he said.
Some of the contract language could be established through online click-through agreements in which users must agree to the terms of the copyright agreement before gaining access to information, Rees said, or the contracts could be in written form.
None of the documents are mandatory, and Rees said he encourages interested MLSs and participants to review the sample contracts with their lawyers. “It has really got to be customized to the local area. I’m not suggesting that anybody should take this and just print it and sign it.”
MLSs who are at the entry level in creating copyright agreements should first focus on a license agreement with subscribers, he said, while brokers should take a look at agreements with agents and contract language for the property listing agreement.
In an article written by Rees that was published Nov. 1 in the National Association of Realtors’ Realtor Magazine, Rees stated that “copying and wide distribution of listings is easy and cheap,” and this “easy access, in turn, has focused new attention on copyright issues.”
To obtain exclusive rights to property listings information, “brokers must obtain all of the rights from others who may have participated in the creation of the copyrightable elements.” For example, “when a seller determines a list price and an agent creates remarks about a property, both the agent and the seller have rights to the applicable copyrightable elements of the listing,” and brokers and MLSs “should institute standard procedures to obtain written transfers of copyrights from sellers and other suppliers of copyrightable material.”
Similarly, a third-party photographer who snaps photos for a property listing, Rees states in the article, “is the creator of the photos and … the owner of the copyrights in those photos. A broker or the MLS must obtain written rights to use the pictures.”
While some aspects of property information cannot be protected by copyright, such as factual information about the property including number of bedrooms and square footage, other content such as photographs and descriptions are generally considered to be copyrightable.
Brian Larson, a Minneapolis lawyer who specializes in real estate and copyright, trademark and licensing law, said the documents that were created by Rees do provide a good model for MLSs, though for his own clients he may offer slightly different recommendations on contract agreements. “It is competently done and far better than not handling those issues at all,” Larson said. “My experience is … with a great percentage of MLSs: If NAR doesn’t offer something as a model they just won’t do it. Having this stuff offered up as model documents is a great help to a great many organizations.”
Larson said that the contract documents may not change the enforceability of copyright, but they could “make it harder for someone who’s infringing on the rights to weasel out of enforcement using technicalities.”
SOURCE: Inman
Even in a home buyer’s market, it’s important to use your clout wisely
February 2nd, 2007
Jenn Vest made what she thought was a fair offer on a house in Broward County, but the seller rejected it and wasn’t much in the mood to haggle. The same thing happened on another property.
Vest later found a two-bedroom house in an eclectic neighborhood near downtown Fort Lauderdale. Originally listed at about $550,000, it was reduced to $349,000. She closed on the deal Dec. 29 for $316,000.
“She got the buy of the century,” said her real estate agent, Pamela Orr of Balistreri Realty in Lighthouse Point.
Buyers have been wielding more power since South Florida’s five-year housing boom last year yielded to a significant slowdown. Those getting the best deals are hiring experienced agents, pushing for incentives, wearing poker faces, finding motivated sellers and, when all else fails, walking away. It’s an environment buyers and sellers will have to get used to because many analysts expect the region’s housing slump to linger throughout 2007.
“If you’re a buyer, this is your time now,” said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based housing analyst.
During the housing boom from 2000 to 2005, competition for homes was fierce as buyers swept in with full-price offers, giving sellers plenty of choices and lots of leverage to force fast sales.
Now, though, buyers are in control as investors have pulled out of South Florida real estate, creating less of a demand for properties. With fewer buyers, homes stay on the market longer. The supply of homes for sale has swelled in Broward and Palm Beach counties, creating havoc for people who need to sell quickly.
While good agents are invaluable, price-sensitive buyers should be prepared to do some of the legwork themselves. That includes driving through neighborhoods and scanning tax collector Web sites for recent sale prices. They even can peruse multiple listing service data that used to be available only to agents.
“Help your Realtor. She can’t read your mind on everything you want,” said Vest, 38, an information technology project manager. “And it makes you a more educated buyer.”
MLS listings also include histories of the properties, and they can show buyers just how motivated or desperate sellers are.
Orr, for instance, noticed that the home Vest bought had been on the market for more than a year. The length of time was the first clue that the seller might be getting antsy.
After probing further, Orr found that prices in the neighborhood were falling, in part because developers were buying homes on the cheap and tearing them down to build luxury townhouses.
Armed with that background information, Vest offered the seller $316,000, about 10 percent less than the latest list price.
“We told the seller, `This is our best offer,’” Orr said.
The seller had a comparable offer from a developer who wanted to tear down the property but chose Vest’s bid because she planned to live in the home.
In today’s climate, buyers who intend to live in the homes typically can pay 10 percent to 15 percent below market value, said David Dweck, an agent in Palm Beach and Broward counties and founder of the Boca Real Estate Investment Club.
Investors paying cash, closing quickly and taking the property “as is” might be able to swing deals with desperate sellers for 65 percent to 70 percent below market value. “That’s reality,” he said.
Some agents say buyers shouldn’t worry about making lower offers, reasoning that sellers can’t afford to be insulted in a market glutted with properties.
Douglas Rill of Century 21 America’s Choice in West Palm Beach just had a client list a Lantana condominium for $400,000. A prospective buyer first offered $330,000 and then $365,000, but the seller refused. After later agreeing to accept the deal, Rill’s client lost out when the buyer had bought another unit in the same complex for less money.
“Sellers can’t be choosy,” Rill said.
But Bruce Gaines of Lang Realty in Boca Raton said buyers shouldn’t make ridiculous offers, either.
“A lowball offer usually sets the tone for the deal,” Gaines said. “It becomes emotional for the seller.”
Dweck advises buyers never to show emotion, no matter how badly they may want a property because the seller will use that as an advantage.
But buyers shouldn’t be shy about asking sellers to pay closing costs or to cough up maintenance or homeowner association fees for a year. And new-home buyers should insist that builders match the incentives offered by their competitors.
“When I’m negotiating for a buyer, I want everything and the kitchen sink,” Dweck said.
If the seller balks at the price or terms and the real estate agents can’t bridge the gulf, it’s time to hunt for another property.
Michelle and Cliff Rich recently moved to Palm Beach County from Louisville, Ky. Like Vest, they made two offers that were rejected, only to find a deal later on a four-bedroom house in Jupiter. It was listed at $574,900, but they paid $545,000.
Michelle Rich said they made out well because they were willing to walk away.
“Someone once told us, `Fall in love with an area, not a particular house,’” she said. “If you fall in love with a house, there’s a good chance you’ll pay much more for it.”
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
Boca Hospital gets a $75 million gift
February 2nd, 2007
Boca Raton - In one of the largest donations of its kind, a $75 million gift from a local benefactor brings Boca Raton Community Hospital a significant step closer to raising $250 million for a teaching hospital that could transform health care in the region. The donation from the Schmidt Family Foundation — the largest to a nonprofit community hospital in recent history — was announced Tuesday morning at a gathering of officials from the hospital, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami, Schmidt family members and government leaders. It was heralded for advancing the effort to revolutionize medical care in Palm Beach County. ‘This is a historic day, I believe,’ said Gary Strack, the hospital’s chief executive officer. ‘It’s making it possible for us to continue building our vision into a bricks-and-mortar reality.’ The new hospital will be named the Charles E. Schmidt Medical Center in honor of the family’s patriarch, who started his career as a farm-equipment entrepreneur during the Great Depression and later became a bank tycoon in South Florida. Schmidt died in 1996 but the family foundation continues to give millions to the community. Construction of the medical center will begin in 2008 on 38 acres on FAU’s campus. At twice the size of the current facility on Meadows Road, the 530-bed medical center will cost about $650 million to build. The hospital plans to borrow $300 million to $380 million. In addition to the Schmidt Family Foundation, the hospital has raised about $50 million — bringing it to about half of its fundraising goal in just one year. Richard Schmidt, of the foundation, has been considering such a donation during the last two years as chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees.
Over the past seven to eight months, ‘We determined it was something we wanted to do,’ he said. ‘Instead of observing the process, we decided to become a part of it.’ In his remarks at the gathering at Avitat Aviation Park, Schmidt appealed to the community to help fund the medical center, which will serve as a teaching ground for University of Miami medical school students at FAU. Already, 48 students are taking classes at the university. The medical center will be used for students’ clinical rotations, instead of having the students go to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. ‘If you haven’t thought of philanthropy, maybe now is the time to consider it,’ said Richard Schmidt, who runs his own investment company. ‘This is something in our own backyard. It’s here right now.’ By the end of 2008, the hospital will have $40 million of the total donation in hand. The rest will come over time, but officials did not specify how long.
According to data analyzed by The Advisory Board Co. in Washington, D.C., the gift is the largest in more than 25 years to a community hospital. For-profit and academic hospitals are not considered community hospitals. Officials highlighted how the medical center could reshape the county’s medical landscape, which has been struggling with such hefty issues as on-call emergency coverage. It could also pump up the local economy and attract physicians and patients from around the region — and possibly the country. Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt, dean of UM’s medical school, said the medical center should change the perspective of residents who leave the county for care. Goldschmidt said about 30 percent of patients with significant illnesses do so. ‘The right way to deliver medicine is to bring it through a wonderful medical center like Schmidt,’ he said. Even before the new medical center is completed by 2011, Boca Community will be known as the Schmidt Medical Center.
The excitement over the transformation was palpable Tuesday. A red carpet led about 200 people into the cavernous airport hangar as greeters told to passers-by, ‘Welcome to the amazing journey.’ Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp praised the public/private partnership between FAU, a state school, and the private UM. ‘In so many ways, this is a win-win,’ Kottkamp said, noting how the medical center will address the shortage of medical workers. The $75 million donation falls in line with the Schmidt Family Foundation’s past philanthropy at FAU and the hospital. The family has given about $30 million to FAU, with $15 million in 1998 for the school’s biomedical sciences building. About $3.5 million has gone to the hospital.
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
