Naples candidate Norgart says bad economy led to his money problems

A Naples City Council candidate with a history of litigation in Collier County said his financial disputes were results of a couple of bad partnerships and an even worse mid-2000s economy.

In almost a dozen lawsuits spanning the past decade, creditors and lenders said Mitch Norgart neglected his $2 million mortgage and racked up more than $350,000 in unpaid debt on credit cards, a motorboat and a yacht club membership.

Norgart’s home lender, after alleging in court filings he failed for more than a year to make payments on his mortgage, foreclosed on his house on Regatta Road in September 2016. Norgart now rents  a home on 15th Avenue South.

Most of Norgart’s disputes date several years. But they stand out among the field of three other council candidates — incumbent Linda Penniman and challengers Gary Price and Terry Hutchison — without such litigious histories in Collier County, court records show.

Norgart, 59, a Naples real estate broker since 1997, is running for one of the three open seats on the council, tasked with overseeing the city’s $148 million budget.

More: Three candidates file to run for Naples City Council seats in 2018

More: Two more candidates file for Naples City Council race

More: Two candidates drop out of Naples council race, pool dwindles to 4 candidates

He said Naples taxpayers should trust him with their money because he has managed a successful real estate firm and takes good care of his family of six adult children.

“With the exception of a few economic downturns and glitches that were beyond my control, I have shown great fiscal responsibility,” Norgart said. “People who know me know that I’m financially responsible.”

Norgart ran South Shore Properties Group from 2007 to 2015. He is now an agent for Gulf Coast International Properties.

He also sits on the city’s design review board, which considers architectural renderings for real estate developments.

Norgart was hit hard by the recession but has paid back his debts, he said.

He said his foreclosure came after Fifth Third Bank sold his loan. A banker advised Norgart to stop making payments while he renegotiated his mortgage, Norgart said, but the new lender called him on his debt.

“They said you have 30 days to pay off $2 million, which I had no ability to do,” he said. “They had no interest in refinancing me.”

Before the recession, Norgart had success investing in real estate, he said.

“The early 2000s and all the way up to 2006 were good years for Naples real estate and for the economy,” Norgart said. “I was making money. I had a boat. I had a big house. And then things started crashing.”

Norgart said he could no longer afford the payments on the $820,000 loan he took out in 2005 to buy his Sea Ray 420 motorboat.

In a lawsuit filed in Collier County in 2014, the lender alleged Norgart had neglected payments since 2009 and owed roughly $270,000.

Norgart has since sold the boat, he said, and set up a payment plan on the debt.

Norgart said he and his family lived off credit during the recession. Chase Bank filed suit against him in 2009 and again in 2010, alleging Norgart owed almost $80,000 on two credit cards.

A Collier County judge issued a $47,500 judgment against Norgart in May 2010 for his debt on one of the cards.

Norgart said he has paid that debt back and has since been approved for credit accounts. He passed a credit check before he moved into his home on 15th Avenue South, Norgart said.

In November 2010, the Naples Sailing and Yacht Club sued Norgart and alleged he owed thousands of dollars in missed payments dating to October 2008.

A judge issued an $11,000 judgment against Norgart in March 2011. The court recorded a satisfaction of judgment in June 2011, records show.

There were also disputes with contractors who did work at Norgart’s houses on Regatta Road and Ridge Drive.

In the late 1990s, when Norgart was building the house on Ridge Drive, the general contractor stiffed its subcontractors for thousands of dollars in work, court documents show. The general contractor, Cambridge Communities Inc., then filed for bankruptcy in 1999, federal records show.

A similar issue arose in the mid-2000s when Norgart was building his house on Regatta Road.

Norgart had hired one of his real estate clients, Westpoint Development, as the general contractor for the improvements. Amid the company's financial issues, Westpoint didn’t pay its subcontractors, court documents show.

One of Westpoint's principals, Matthew Miller of Naples, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, federal records show. Another principal, John Miller of Bonita Springs, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

“It had nothing to do with Mitch’s practices,” John Miller said. “The Millers had trouble. It wasn’t Norgart.”

In both disputes regarding work at his homes, the subcontractors filed liens against Norgart as the property owner or took him to court.

Records show some of the liens were paid off in the months after they were filed, and Norgart said he has since paid the contractors for all their work.

“It wasn’t me welching on the deals,” Norgart said. “It was me finding out that the general contractors didn’t pay what they owed. I made restitution.”

In August 2017, the landlord of Norgart’s footwear store, Naples On the Run, sued Norgart, his partners and their company, alleging they had failed to pay rent and demanded the roughly $122,000 remaining on the lease.

Norgart said the company, in which Norgart has been an investor since the 1990s, had turned control of the store’s operations over to a new partner who failed to manage its finances.

“That was purely based upon the fact that our managing member was being untruthful to us,” Norgart said. “He was telling us the rent was paid, everything was fine.”

The lawsuit was settled in November. Norgart said his group paid the landlord what they owed.

Perry Silverman, Norgart’s longtime associate in On the Run, defended him.

“All my experience with him in business has been fine,” Silverman said. “When somebody asks me about real estate, I recommend him.”