A message to fellow owners

Two Years.
One Direction.
Down.

Botanica owners have lost approximately $137,500 per unit in two years while Key Biscayne values rose. The decline is not the market. It is the governance.

Matt Bramson Owner, Unit 176 Candidate for the Board of Directors

See the case

One — what our dues should buy us

Operating costs are up $1.79 million per year. The building is the same size it was three years ago.

Vendor relationships matter. So does keeping the people who run the building. This board has done neither — and the financial cost shows up in lines we all pay for.

+$1.79M

Annual operating expense growth, 2023 → 2025

4.7×

Increase in Contract Services spending alone, $179K → $835K

Senior staff resignations since December 2024

Where the $1.79 million went

2023 actual spending vs. 2025 actual spending, by category

Contract Services nearly quintupled. Part of that growth is a structural shift, not new spending: the in-house janitorial department was outsourced, moving roughly $260,000 of cost from payroll into Contract Services. That accounts for some of the jump. But even after subtracting the entire janitorial reclassification, Contract Services still grew by approximately $400,000 of unexplained vendor cost — landscaping, management, technology, and other contracts that were churned, replaced, and re-priced. Vendors give their best to clients they want to keep. This board sent the opposite signal, and got the obvious result: higher costs, weaker service, and no relationships left to draw on when something goes wrong.

Payroll going down is not a saving. Botanica lost two general managers, the head of maintenance, the office administrator, and several security staff in the same period — all resignations. Positions sat unfilled for months. The dollars that did not get spent on payroll are the dollars that did not get spent on the people who run this building. That is a service cut the board can claim as savings.

Insurance rose sharply across 2023–2025 — that part reflects the Florida market, not board action. The 2026 budget shows insurance coming down by roughly $116,000, and another decrease is expected next year. That is also the market, not the board: carriers re-entered Florida after the 2024 rate cycle. If the board takes credit for these decreases, owners should know that every other building on Key Biscayne is seeing the same thing. Most of the reserve increase is also appropriate — that is real money the building owes itself. But the operating cost growth on the lines the board actually controls is large, fast, and unexplained. $1.79 million per year, on a building that is the same size it was three years ago.

Resignations since Dec 2024

Staff

General ManagerResigned
General Manager (replacement)Resigned
Head of MaintenanceResigned
Office AdministratorResigned
Security Staff (multiple)Resigned

Board Officers

Past PresidentResigned
TreasurerResigned
Treasurer (replacement)Resigned
SecretaryResigned

Five staff. Four elected officers. The people closest to how this Association is run, paid and unpaid, have been walking out — at every level, throughout the same period.

Two — what our reserves should protect us from

Owners are $912 short, every month, on the work this building requires.

The licensed reserve specialist engaged by the Association told the Board, in writing and in person, what 2026 funding was required. The Board funded 38% of it. The shortfall does not disappear. It compounds.

What the specialist said

Steady, predictable contributions

$1,479

per unit, per month — the contribution required to fund the work this building needs without surprise bills. Concrete restoration, balcony and planter waterproofing, exterior painting, eventual roof replacement.

What the Board approved

An invisible IOU to ourselves

$567

per unit, per month — funded at 38% of the specialist's recommendation. The remaining $912 per unit per month is not saved. It is a bill being written, in pencil, against every owner.

The arithmetic of delay

The specialist warned that elevated funding is needed in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Each year of delay adds approximately 10% to the cost of the work.

~$32,000

per unit special assessment — the conservative estimate of what owners face if this funding pattern continues across the three years the specialist warned about. Three years of $3.2M shortfall, divided across 293 units. With 10%/year cost inflation factored in, the figure rises closer to $36,000 per unit.

Calculation: 2026 SIRS + Non-SIRS shortfall of $3,206,410 (specialist's recommendation $5,201,430 minus Board's funding $1,995,020) × 3 years ÷ 293 units = $32,830 per unit before construction inflation. Source: PM+ Reserves Reserve Study dated November 2, 2025; Key Colony No. 4 2026 Approved Budget signed December 16, 2025.

A special assessment is a one-time bill, owed by every owner, to cover work that was not funded steadily through monthly contributions. They are deeply unpopular for obvious reasons — they arrive without warning, in tens of thousands of dollars, and they hit owners who may have just bought, just paid down a mortgage, or just retired.

Florida statute does not permit owners to vote to underfund SIRS reserves. The work the specialist identified — concrete restoration, waterproofing, exterior painting, eventual roof replacement — is not optional. It will be done, and it will be paid for, by us. The only question is whether it is paid for in steady, predictable monthly contributions across multiple years, or in a much larger bill that arrives all at once after this Board has run out of one-time maneuvers.

This is the choice on the ballot.

Three — what our units are worth

Buyers and renters can already see what is happening. They are pricing it in.

Everything above has a price, and that price has already shown up in the market. Buyers walk through the lobby. They notice the planters, the paint, the waterstains. They hear the rumors of assessments. And they discount accordingly — or they walk away.

−$137,500

per unit. The two-year gap between Botanica's price-per-square-foot trend and the rest of the Village of Key Biscayne, at our average sale price.

Village of Key Biscayne

+6%

Price per square foot, April 2024 → April 2026

Botanica at Key Colony

−5%

Same period, same metric, same market — different governance

An 11-point gap, in the same neighborhood, in the same window of time. The market is not arbitrary. Buyers see deferred maintenance and a record of dysfunction, and they react in the only way buyers can: lower offers, longer time on market, or a different building entirely.

$137,500 per unit is not a projection. It is the scoreboard. Right now. And every additional year of underfunded reserves, deferred maintenance, and visible neglect makes the gap wider — because the next reserve study, the next insurance inspection, the next prospective buyer's walkthrough, will all see what this Board has been hiding in the operating budget.

The longer this continues, the harder it is to reverse. That is what this election is about.

The case studies

Six issues. Documented in detail.

The case above is the summary. These are the receipts — issue-by-issue deep dives, each one a self-contained story owners can read in two minutes and share with a neighbor.

Read the case

Landscaping

A vendor change that cost owners visibly and immediately. The before, the after, and the dollars.

→

Coming soon

Janitorial

An in-house department outsourced. What it cost, what changed, and what owners actually got.

Coming soon

Management Company

Two general managers gone in two years. The pattern, the contracts, and the cost of churn.

Coming soon

Reserve Projects

Concrete restoration, waterproofing, the roof. What the specialist said. What the board did.

Coming soon

Rules

Outdated rules, a flawed process, and an enforcement campaign that ignored qualified legal advice.

Coming soon

Party Room

A small story that says a lot about how this board treats owner amenities.

The candidate

Matt Bramson

Owner · Unit 176 · Botanica resident, fourteen years

I have served on the Board before — as President of Botanica, and as President of the Key Colony master association. The crises this Board has been deferring for two years are crises I have already navigated, on this property, on budget. I am not running on what I would do. I am running on what I have already done.

Saved owners millions on the roof. QBE had failed Botanica's roof; replacement estimates ran to $4 million. I got it repaired for under $50,000, passed inspection, and retained QBE — preventing a permanent insurance increase of up to $1 million per year.
Reopened the Key Colony lap pool after it was closed for deferred maintenance — concrete restoration work, on budget. Exactly the category of project Botanica needs and this Board has avoided.
Built the Sandbar partnership with the Golden Hog — no rent, revenue share, weather terms — still healthy and producing income for owners nearly a decade later.
Created the Association's first-ever management operating system — annual priorities, quarterly goals, weekly manager's reports to every owner. The current Board eliminated all of it within months.

If elected

Five priorities. No mystery.

A board member has one vote. The board sets priorities, holds management accountable, and makes the decisions management cannot. Here is what I will push for from day one.

Restore accountability and transparency.

Bring back monthly communications, quarterly accountability reports, the annual review, and published goals with measurables. Opacity is where accountability dies.

Drive deferred building work to completion.

Concrete restoration, exterior work, planters. Engage the right professionals, set the scope, hold timeline and budget. I have done this before, on this property.

Protect our insurance coverage.

Deferred maintenance puts coverage at unnecessary risk. Losing favorable coverage costs every owner — every year, permanently. I have navigated this exact threat before.

Set the standard for vendor relationships.

Clear expectations, measured performance, deliberate change. Vendors as genuine partners — not as casualties of board churn.

Treat owners as the investors they are.

Not as subjects to be managed. Communication, transparency, and decisions that protect long-term value over short-term political optics.

The paper trail

What was said, and when.

The documented record of responsible governance — and what this board has abandoned.

President's Budget Letter — 2022

The roof crisis, the insurance decision, and how decisive action saved owners millions

↗

Letter to Fellow Owners — July 2023

The three core principles: maximize value, optimize lifestyle, efficiently manage the property

↗

Annual Review 2024 — Q1 Performance & Q2 Goals

The first-ever association annual kickoff: goals, measurables, and accountability by department

↗

Q1 2024 Performance Report & Q2 Kickoff

Documented goals, measurables, and results — the operational standard this board eliminated

↗

Q2 2024 Review & Q3 Goals

The last quarterly review before the board changed — the baseline that was abandoned

↗

Letter to Owners — May 2024

Internet service disruption — an example of owner communication and transparency in practice

↗

Letter to Owners — July 2024

Q3 2024 kickoff letter — the last communication of this kind before the board changed

↗

Your vote

Make it count.

How to vote

There are three candidates for two seats. Cast only one vote — for Matt.

This is called bullet voting, and it is the single most powerful vote you can cast. Every vote you withhold from another candidate increases the relative weight of yours. That is how this works, and it matters.

Reach Matt directly

Questions, ideas, or concerns?

Phone 786-972-4580

Email matt@mattbramson.com

Share keycolony4.info

Fellow owners with questions, ideas, or concerns are welcome — encouraged — to reach out directly.

Two Years.One Direction.Down.

Operating costs are up $1.79 million per year. The building is the same size it was three years ago.

Owners are $912 short, every month, on the work this building requires.

Buyers and renters can already see what is happening. They are pricing it in.

Six issues. Documented in detail.

Landscaping

Janitorial

Management Company

Reserve Projects

Rules

Party Room

Matt Bramson

Five priorities. No mystery.

What was said, and when.

Make it count.

There are three candidates for two seats. Cast only one vote — for Matt.

Questions, ideas, or concerns?

Two Years.
One Direction.
Down.