Bofsa Properties Sues Lake Park Over Alleged Extortion Scheme

Bofsa Properties has sued the Town of Lake Park in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging the town’s own attorney tried to force the New York firm to sell its affordable-housing assemblage by directing a code officer to pile violations onto the site after Bofsa refused. The complaint, filed in late August 2026 under the entity Alder at Lake Park LLC, names Town Attorney Tom Baird as the alleged architect of the scheme.

Why it matters

The lawsuit lands squarely on the risk every developer weighs when a project needs a hostile local government’s sign-off. Bofsa, led by Daniel Goldstein, assembled seven parcels at Park Avenue and 10th Street for The Kelsey at Park Avenue, a mixed-use affordable project, only to have the town push it to downsize from 720 to 426 units and then reject its latest application outright, according to the complaint. If a town attorney can use code enforcement as leverage to steer a sale toward a favored developer, as alleged here, that changes how any affordable-housing sponsor underwrites entitlement risk in small Florida municipalities, not just in South Florida.

The numbers

According to the complaint, Baird told Alder’s representatives he would “never let Alder build what it wants” and separately said the company’s problems would go away if it sold to a developer he had lined up. After Alder refused, the complaint alleges Baird directed a code enforcement officer to issue 34 violations, using the threat of millions of dollars in remediation costs to pressure a sale. One disputed parcel, 918 Park Avenue, holds a deteriorating historic building that the town had urged Alder to buy and fold into the project in exchange for a larger unit count and faster approvals, the complaint states, before the town began fining it over that building’s condition.

What’s next

Baird has denied the allegations, telling reporters the suit is retaliation for “performing the responsibilities we have to the town and its residents” and that the property owner had admitted to violations in code magistrate proceedings. Alder’s attorney disputes that characterization. The federal docket was not independently reviewable at deadline, so this account rests on the complaint as described by Bofsa’s own filing summary and on Baird’s on-record response; the case has not yet been resolved and Lake Park’s town government has not issued a separate statement.