Condo converter’s debts pile up [South Florida]
Warren Hickernell looked like the boldest contrarian in the Southwest Florida real estate market last year.
He spent millions changing motels and apartment buildings into condominiums long after the conversion trend seemed spent.
But with banks foreclosing on six of his 18 conversion projects — demanding repayment of more than $17 million — Hickernell now looks like a gambler whose luck ran out after he kept letting it ride on red.
To make matters worse, Hickernell and his wife, Mary Lynn Desjarlais, find their names linked to Daniel Prewett, a felon who served time in a New York state prison for insurance fraud in the 1980s and was recently arrested in Italy on money laundering charges related to a cocaine deal.