Condo investors having a nightmare
Dick Svelta, an investment manager with an MBA from Dartmouth and a net worth close to $10 million, liked the looks of a condominium project being built near Eau Gallie Boulevard. So much so, he took his banker up on an offer in 2004 to introduce him to the man behind the deal, Patrick Daleiden.
Brevard was booming, and the developer envisioned the planned mix of condominiums and shops as something akin to Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. Svelta and others invested an estimated $6 million, and banks loaned Daleiden’s companies behind the project, Eau Gallie Development and Casalina Condo, almost $11 million more from 2001 to 2006.
The sprawling project seemed poised to transform a stretch of boulevard known up to then for strip malls, run-down mobile home parks and tangles of Brazilian pepper trees. One of the beachside’s most prolific Realtors would be hired to sell units.
But Daleiden, apparently new to condo development, had a recent history of failing investors and lenders in other businesses, leaving a trail of judgments from Maryland to Brevard, a review of court records found. He faces more than $2 million in judgments against his other companies.