That land abuts roughly 100 parcels containing homes, condos, restaurants and marinas, many with docks, all collectively worth about $150 million, property records show. Lantz’s wife, Tina, added, “Forty-thousand dollars is a lot of money for something that already belongs to us.’’Īt stake is NPB Properties’ contention that it owns hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars worth of river bottom as well as slices of waterfront land on both sides of the river. To us, this is about our right to enjoy the waterway that we were led to believe we were buying,’’ said Ron Lantz, a lawyer who has lived a few doors down from Apgar since 2002. "North Palm Beach was developed as a boating community. They are pooling their money and vowing to defend their rights to continue accessing their backyard docks - access they say they’re entitled to through a village planning map known as a plat and a public easement with the South Florida Water Management District. None of the lawsuits has gone far enough to get a ruling from a judge, which is the goal of the Ibis Way neighbors who sued in September. Two, including the company’s 2017 trespassing lawsuit against Riverside Apartments, have been settled, both recognizing the company’s ownership claims. North Palm Beach Properties has been involved in five lawsuits related to the submerged land, all since 2017. You think you own waterfront property and then somebody comes along and tells you you don’t.’’ Who does he think he is? I felt like fainting,’’ said Nancy Knoth, owner of Riverside Apartments on Hummingbird Way, across the river from Apgar’s house. “Out of the blue this guy comes around asking for $50,000. When Jack Schwencke died in 2012 at the age of 95, his obituary described him as a respected man who often sealed deals with his word and a handshake - characteristics many property owners along the Earman River today don’t see in his son, Kim. The company was founded by his father, John “Jack” Schwencke, a developer who helped incorporate North Palm Beach in 1956 with land bought from Chicago insurance magnate John D. North Palm Beach Properties is run by Kim Schwencke, a real estate broker and avid golfer living in Tampa. Two who tried to challenge the company gave up when their legal bills piled up.īut others, including Apgar and 10 of his Ibis Way neighbors, are digging in for what promises to be an expensive legal battle with a company controlled by the scion of a village founder. Some property owners paid without much of a fight. The most recent wave started in 2017 when NPB Properties ramped up its efforts to sell off the rest of the canal, which the company claims to have owned since the 1950s when it started building the village’s first homes. Off and on, since at least 2006, dozens of residential and commercial property owners up and down the river have gotten similar demands. All he has to do is pay $40,000 for the submerged land anchoring the dock - land Apgar always assumed came with the property he bought in 1988. The river is owned by a company called North Palm Beach Properties Inc., the letter continued, but Apgar can avoid trespassing and having to tear down his dock. The letter advised Apgar that his dock - with it jet skis, deck chairs and whimsical “No Peein’ off the Dock” sign - is trespassing on private property, specifically the Earman River, a 1.5-mile extension of the C-17 Canal from Prosperity Farms Road to the Intracoastal Waterway.
EARMAN RIVER PATCH
One day last May, Apgar said his “little patch of paradise” came under attack when he opened his mailbox and found a letter from a lawyer. First with his late wife and more recently with his grandson, he has launched his motorboat, watched dolphins and manatees cruise by and caught sunsets from his deck chair.
NORTH PALM BEACH - For 30 years, John Apgar has enjoyed the perks of his backyard dock on the scenic Earman River.
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