Headquartered in Hialeah, Fla., Broward Trailer Company, Inc., reportedly has closed its doors and gone silent. On October 16, Broward customer Brannon Lillard reached out to speedonthewater.com for assistance reaching company president Jim Nall. Lillard, who put down a $17,600 deposit on a Broward trailer, said he last spoke to Nall on September 20.

A well-known business in the high-performance marine industry, Broward Trailers has enlisted the services of a South Florida-based law firm that specializes in bankruptcy protection filings.

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“The last I heard from him, everything was great,” said Lillard, who lives in Kentucky. “Since then, I’ve tried to contact him probably 25 times between emails, phone calls and Facebook.

“I’ve been told by people in the business next door that the gates are closed and nobody is there,” he added.

Powerboat transporter Jeff Cooke of Georgia-based JC Transport USA has a similar story. Like Lillard, he put down a deposit—$18,000 in Cooke’s case—and said he was told that his trailer was being built. Lillard, who ended up having to buy another trailer to support his transportation business, said he was told by a former Broward representative after several missed completion deadlines that his trailer was in progress, had been painted and “only needed tires and wheels.”

Cooke also was told by employees in the neighboring business that the Broward facility appears to be closed.

In an email message dated October 16, Nall referred Cooke to attorney Ido J. Alexander, a partner with Leiderman, Shelomith, Alexander and Somodevilla Attorneys, a South Florida-based law firm that specializes in bankruptcy protection filings.

Speedonthewater.com reached out to Alexander via phone and email with questions regarding the current financial solvency of Broward Trailers and Mr. Nall, and he responded via email.

“I represent the company and not the individuals,” he wrote. “They are evaluating their options. No further comment.”

Jason Moe, who lives in Washington and is in the process of having Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats build a 46-foot catamaran, ordered a tilt trailer through Broward after the 2019 Miami International Boat Show. Moe sent the company a $30,000 deposit but said that while schematics of his trailer were promised to him “within a few weeks” he didn’t hear back from the company till May.

Moe eventually threatened the company with litigation when multiple attempts to reach Broward during the next few months were unsuccessful. He eventually reached Nall in July and was told that Broward would not be able to build his trailer and would refund his deposit.

A few weeks later, Moe received a proposed two-year schedule for repayment via email.

“We went back and forth on email a few times and now I have my attorney working on it,” Moe said. “I’m a nice guy. This is the last thing I want to do. I’ve been told they’ve closed their doors and all the employees are gone. It’s just a horrible situation.”

Multiple calls to the company, which still has a voicemail message from early July on its phone system, from speedonthewater.com have gone unreturned. Phone calls and emails to Nall also have gone unreturned.

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