Colony Association parts ways with developer

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association attorney Jeffrey Warren told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May last week he anticipated the Association and JHM Financial Group LLC could sign a development agreement this week.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, the Association’s board of directors told unit owners at a meeting on Wednesday night that it has parted ways with JHM.

“We simply couldn’t reach an acceptable agreement,” said Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon

It’s the second time the Association has parted ways with a developer after signing an exclusive agreement with a development partner.

Despite the news, Yablon said a global resolution to the shuttered Colony Beach & Tennis Resort is still on track.

The settlement agreement reached among the Association, longtime Colony owner Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber and the U.S. trustee will be reviewed by May on Nov. 22 in his Tampa courtroom.

Yablon said the Association is mailing out ballots to unit owners next week and he anticipates that a 75% majority vote of the owners will be approved in mid-November before May reviews the settlement.

“It’s our hope and intention the entire Association will approve it,” Yablon said.

The Association, Yablon said, has also opened up a dialogue with Colony Lender LLC, the bankruptcy case’s largest affected creditor, and Andy Adams, a unit owner with control of 25% of the resort’s units, to try and reach a settlement.

Yablon also explained the process for a future developer.

“The development field is wide open,” said Yablon, noting that Longboat Key-based MW Development Group and Orlando-based Unicorp National Development Inc. (Colony Lender’s choice) will be considered. “Nobody will be excluded from consideration and no developer will receive any exclusives any further.”

Yablon said the Association now has a fully formed development agreement that’s acceptable to the owners that will be the starting point for negotiations with a future developer.

“The first developer with the capacity and wherewithal to reach a development agreement with the Association wins,” Yablon said.

Yablon said he doesn’t believe the development agreement is a major issue at this time.

“The Town Commission has been telling us for a long time now that they don’t care about developers, don’t want to hear about developers and don’t want to hear from developers until we have settled the legal disputes,” Yablon said. “We agree the Town Commission was 100% on target in that belief. Our top priority is to have a settlement accepted by the membership at large and then and only then will it make sense to turn to the question of developers.”

Yablon said that while unit owners are voting in the coming weeks, the Association intends to engage into discussions with all interested developers so a development agreement can be agreed upon as soon as unit owners approve a settlement.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].