ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Reality TV Star Captain Sandy Yawn is one of the homeowners who were left behind by the Pineapple Corporation, a Jacksonville homebuilder accused of abandoning projects in Nocatee’s Twenty Mile subdivision.
Yawn is the star of the hit Bravo show “Below Deck Mediterranean” where she leads a crew on a luxury charter yacht in the Mediterranean.
“It’s been over a year since it’s been touched,” Yawn said.
Yawn said she fell in love with the Nocatee community three years ago.
“There’s water parks and golf carts. Like, I’m a kid at heart. And I called her up and said, ‘My soul is happy here,’” Yawn said.
It wasn’t long after that, Yawn and her fiancé Leah Shafer decided to buy a property and build their forever home.
“We’ve spent every dime that we have. And so now we don’t really have the money to finish it. We have to try to get a loan. And we just want it when our house finishes. But more importantly, the person that took our money, I just want to know where our money is,” she said.
Yawn said the house project has wrecked her financially and emotionally.
“We started sending money, we decided, out of our savings that we would, let’s just let’s just pay for it,” she said.
Yawn said the home she and her partner paid $1.6 million for has been sitting unfinished and now has cracks in the foundation. There is even mold growing in some parts of the drywall.
The Pineapple Corporation is the home builder responsible for the 15 homes left behind in The Vista at Twenty Mile. Those who didn’t already pay in cash are stuck with thousands of dollars in loan payments for an unlivable home.
News4JAX reached out to the Pineapple Corporation and President Spencer Calvert and the company said Pineapple Corporation “is in communication with all parties involved to find an amicable solution. We do not disclose details of private negotiations.”
Yawn said that is a lie.
“What’s the solution? Spencer, Where’s our money? Bring us back our money. Where’s the solution? Spencer? I don’t see a solution,” Yawn said. “He needs to be held accountable...Show us where the money went because it’s not here.”
Yawn is working with a new contractor to finish her home and she and the other homeowners left behind have been talking with detectives from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
The master developer for The Vista in Nocatee is the PARC group. They have not returned News4JAX’s phone calls.