Less than two months before the Coral Gables election this Tuesday, commission candidate Alex Bucelo signed a $990,000 mortgage for the purchase of a 4-bedroom, 3-bath home at 1432 Venetia Avenue, valued at $1.4 million — quite an upgrade from his 2-bedroom, 2-bath, $300K apartment on Biltmore Way.
Is he expecting some kind of windfall?
County property records also show that just one month prior to signing this mortgage with his wife, which Bucelo did on Feb. 22, the house transferred for free from Philip C. Black to an entity called Erudite Acquisitions USA, LCC, that lists Black and his wife as principals, on Jan. 24.
Did Bucelo subsequently buy the home from Erudite? Why not directly from the Blacks? And why $990K? The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser records show the house is valued at $806,197 but Zillow estimates the true market value is $1.4 million. So Bucelo got a deal!
Bucelo did not return calls and texts over several days. The witness and notary on the mortgage filed with the county is Rachel Peraza, another attorney at Bucelo’s family’s boutique firm.
On the same day that Bucelo signed that mortgage, he filed his campaign’s financial disclosure form. There’s no mention of the new house in the “real property” section of the statement of financial interests. In fact, there is no mention of the unit at 625 Biltmore Way, which Bucelo and his wife Cristina Garcia bought in 2021 for $346,000. He may not have to list his homestead property, but if he has two properties, he has to list one of them. Or is that why he signed the mortgage on the same day?
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Bucelo — who is getting a lot of campaign contributions from development interests, out of town donors, lobbyists and political action committees — graduated from St. Thomas law school in 2017 and joined the Florida Bar in 2018. He became a partner at Bucelo Law Group in 2019 and specializes in civil litigation, property claims and real estate closings, among other things. If he were to be elected on Tuesday, he would get an extra salary of $36,488 a year as a commissioner.
And the 29-year-old already owns two homes in the Gables? He’s paying two mortgages?
That’s a success story, even when he’s not elected.
Alex Bucelo mortgage document by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Coral Gables commission candidate Alex Bucelo buys $1.4 mil home added by Ladra on
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