PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Port St. Lucie family says a planned drug detox center and sober home near their house hurt their chance of selling the home.
Now, they want city leaders to take notice.
Patrick Fallacaro put his house on the market seven months ago. He and his wife were ready to downsize.
He was confident the house located near Torino Parkway would sell fast. “Everyone that comes to the house, they open the door and go ‘wow!’ Fallacaro said.
The house is well kept, upgraded and priced fairly compared to nearby homes.
“I thought it was such an easy sell that we went and bought a house,” Fallacaro said.
At first, Fallacaro said the showings were steady, but no one was making an offer.
He noticed what the problem might be when one family pulled into the driveway for their scheduled showing.
“They actually pulled in got out of the car, looked at the rehab center, looked at one another and got back in the car and drove away.”
After that, he asked his realtor to warn every potential buyer about the near 4-acre Torino Addiction Treatment Center at the end of his street. He did not want to waste his time showing the home to people who would just walk away.
After that, everything changed. “Two months went by and nobody came.”
The home was originally listed near $300,000.
Then, he got an appraisal, dropping the price to near $290,000.
Months after no luck, his realtor suggested he drop his home nearly $30,000 below the appraisal. That’s when Fallacaro and his wife decided to give up on their downsizing dream.
They took their home off the market two days ago.
“I want the council to see what they did to the people in this area,” Fallacaro said.
This was the fear of dozens of nearby residents for years, as the project made progress.
Many worried about the hit to the property values or their inability to sell their homes.
“We cried, we were there at the meetings, we did everything we had to do,” Fallacaro said.
Now, they’re accepting the fact they might not be moving.
The project is expected to be completed in May.
Fallacaro says he will give the facility a year to prove it will not draw crime or other nuisances to the area.
If the facility upholds a good record, he believes he may have a better chance of selling his home in the future.
