Wealthy donors to Dale Holness‘ congressional campaign are paying the rent on his real estate office in Plantation, Federal records show. Holness owns the All Broward Realty (ABR) office located at 4325 West Sunrise Boulevard. For years, Holness has used his real estate office as his political headquarters.
In 2018, Dale Holness, his daughter Damara Holness and his campaign guru Omar Smith used the All Broward Realty office as the defacto Andrew Gillum campaign office. Holness and his daughter filmed videos shilling for Gillum.
In 2018, REDBROWARD interviewed Omar Smith at an Andrew Gillum campaign rally held in the parking lot in front of Dale Holness’ real estate office. A few month later, James O’Keefe of Project Veritas confronted Omar Smith outside the ABR offices after undercover video showed Smith using racial slurs to describe Florida voters.
In April 2021, Dale Holness announced his candidacy for US Congress District 20 at a rally at his real estate office.
Dale Holness repeatedly posts pictures of supporters attending meetings at his real estate office.
Now, Holness is using campaign contributions to pay his rent at the ten unit shopping mall near the Florida Turnpike. In its June 2021 campaign report to the Federal Elections Commission, the Holness For Congress committee lists a $1,700 payment to Plantation Merchandise Mart for “June rent for office space.”
Instead of using Plantation Merchandise Mart’s physical address in Plantation, the Holness For Congress campaign used the Lake Worth address of In-Rel Properties which manages commerical properties.
All ten units at the Plantation Merchandise Mart appear to be occupied. The tenants include a medical office, a beauty salon, a tax and tag office, a school, a plumbing supply company, an MRI office, a uniform store and All Broward Realty.
The Holness real estate office is festooned with campaign signs for Dale Holness and the late Alcee Hastings.
REDBROWARD contacted In-Rel Properties to ask if Dale Holness had rented additional office space at the Plantation Merchandise Mart. A company representative said someone would call us back.
But on the Holness For Congress website, the only address provided is the All Broward Realty office. This same address is used on the Federal forms Dale Holness filed to run for Congress.
Is Dale Holness really using campaign funds to pay rent on his business’ office? With the election more than two months away, Dale Holness could save six months of rent payments that would have come out of his own pocket.
This would not be the first time Dale Holness gamed the system to his financial advantage.
In 2013, REDBROWARD exposed how Dale Holness failed to pay more than $13,000 in property taxes on numerous investment properties across Broward. When asked about his failure to pay his tax bills, Holness was nonchalant about the matter.
Holness told the Sun-Sentinel his paltry $92,000 County Commission salary barely covered expenses for his seven children.”I’m paying it as I can,” Holness said. “I have different responsibilities. I have children, I don’t neglect my children. I’ve been helping them because they have had a tough time and even though some [of them] are grown … I still have the responsibility.”
Since Holness was so delinquent, his property taxes were sold in tax certificate process. The Sun-Sentinel explained at a tax certificate sale, “investors compete to pay the tax bills for the owners, bidding for an interest rate that will be owed by the delinquent taxpayer. The investor gambles on the eventual payoff from the taxpayer: If the property owner pays up, the investor pockets the interest. If the owner doesn’t pay, the investor can move forward with trying to acquire the property at auction.”
To Dale Holness, there was no shame in having tax certificates sold on his properties. He told the Sun-Sentinel, “The money still goes into the tax coffers. It does cost me more. It’s like a loan.”
In 2020, REDBROWARD again exposed how Holness failed to timely pay his property taxes. He owed nearly $19,000 in taxes to the County. Two of his properties, both Lauderhill townhomes, were so delinquent that both homes were subject to public auction proceedings.
At his campaign kickoff in April, REDBROWARD asked Dale Holness about his failure to pay his property taxes on time.
Shouldn’t Dale Holness pay his own bills?
