PORT ST. LUCIE — Hundreds of Tesoro property owners aren’t waiting around while their subdivision’s developer grinds through bankruptcy court: They’re filing their own lawsuits against Ginn Resorts and its affiliates.

Property owners are charging Ginn with a host of wrongdoings, including selling lots through Ponzi schemes, fraudulently inflating property values, lying to and duping clients, failing to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership dues and missing escrow accounts and backing out on promises to build amenities.

Timothy Vetrano, 72, a retiree from Manhasset, N.Y., who lives at Tesoro with his wife Marilyn, said his experience falls under “buyer beware.”
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A group of buyers in communities built by The Ginn Co. — including grandiose Tesoro in Port St. Lucie — are claiming the developer and its affiliates fraudulently inflated real estate prices.

A class-action lawsuit filed late last month in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville targets Celebration-based Ginn, its sister companies, financing partner Lubert-Adler and banks that worked with Ginn, including SunTrust, Fifth Third Bancorp and Wachovia Bank.

The suit alleges Ginn led a scheme to bloat prices at every step of the process — from lavish sales launches to manipulated appraisals. Among the claims: Ginn staffers posed as competing buyers to pressure people to sign a sale contract.

The misdeeds happened in more than a dozen Ginn developments, starting as early as the late 1990s, according to the suit.

Some properties are now worth as little as 10 percent of their appraised value, “a phenomenon that absolutely cannot be explained by mere market downturn,” the suit states.

Buyers from as far as England and as near as Boca Raton are parties. They are seeking class certification.

“We will vigorously defend against this litigation and any other false allegation brought against our company,” Ginn spokesman Ryan Julison said.

The Wellington investor who bought Port St. Lucie’s upscale Tesoro development out of bankruptcy has grand visions for the community — and they don’t center on golf.

Glenn Straub, a polo magnate in Palm Beach County, hopes to bring a giant equestrian complex to Tesoro at the southern edge of St. Lucie County.

He wants to build barns, show rings, training rings — and everything else needed for the high-end horse crowd.

“It will be a satellite to Wellington, and we’ll have shows once a week,” said Straub, who owns Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club in Wellington.

To accommodate the Port St. Lucie complex, he’s in talks to buy more property just east of Tesoro, which sits north of Becker Road. He hasn’t decided how many acres, he said.

The goal is to have the equestrian digs up and running in time for season next year. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Financial and legal problems are mounting at the exclusive Tesoro development in St. Lucie County.

Tesoro’s parent company, the Ginn Cos., remains tight-lipped over how the company plans to cope with money problems and a new lawsuit filed recently in St. Lucie County.

Company executives indicated Tuesday the company still was negotiating with creditors over missed loan and interest payments due over the summer.

“We are currently negotiating with a group of lenders that represent a credit facility on several of our communities including Tesoro,” said Ginn spokesman Ryan Julison. “However, these negotiations are ongoing and we have not reached resolution regarding the go forward.” (more…)