Fighting the foreclosure crisis with PR

WESLEY CHAPEL - The Bridgewater subdivision could be considered a poster child of the foreclosure crisis. There are 760 houses in the neighborhood, half of the houses are in some stage of foreclosure or occupied by renters.

"It's awkward. When we bought, we had four homes on each side of us that were empty. It's not a neighborhood as you would think of it," said Bobby Martin, one of the subdivision's residents.

But Martin and his neighbors are not content to simply ride out the foreclosure crisis hoping for better times. But, they had a serious problem.

"A lot of the realtors would not show someone in here," Martin said.

The time came for "plan B."

"The public relations firm was something way outside the box that no one else is doing. For us, we're trying to stay ahead of the curve and we thought this was the way to do it," Martan said.

The Bridgewater subdivision turned to French West Vaughn, a public relations company with offices in New York, North Carolina and Tampa.

"To our knowledge, this is the first community association that has retained the services of a public relations firm to help to get their good message out," said Jack Glasure.

The company will not try to sell the neighborhood's vacant homes directly.

"We have a unique way of reaching the public. For example we host events, there will be a fall festival here in November. We're going to invite a lot of people to experience the community for the first time," Glasure said.

The subdivision will eventually be marketed as a community at events from the St. Pete Times Forum to the USF campus.

"This is a great way for our community to get our name out there," Martain said.

And it appears to be working: Martin said he has already seen an increase number of visits from realtors.