Colony Contenders: Arendee Colony

Editor’s note: This story is the third in a series of four profiles, each of which features one of the four finalists for the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort redevelopment.

Randy Langley’s involvement in the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort dates back to a Longboat Key Town Commission meeting in fall 2009, when he and the resort’s longtime owner, Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber, unsuccessfully argued against the town constructing a new $745,000 facility for the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center.

Afterward, Langley, who owns Cedars Tennis & Fitness Club, learned over lunch with Klauber at the Colony’s Monkey Room that a years-old dispute with unit owners over who should pay for repairs was in Tampa federal bankruptcy court.

Langley told the Longboat Observer in 2010 that he went home thinking: “Wow, this is really a messed-up situation.”

Langley, a residential developer, felt drawn to the challenge. That November, he presented Cedars member David Siegal, who lives on Longboat Key and commutes twice a month by plane to his law practice in Albany, N.Y., with a business plan for the Colony.

“I’m in, brother,” Siegal told him just days later.

In the nearly two years that have passed, the pair has formed Colony Lender LLC, which purchased a $10 million bank note owned by Klauber and the Colony, along with a 15% interest in the Colony’s recreational/resort property. Since then, the Colony has also closed, and Langley and Siegal’s company, Arendee Colony, is now one of four finalists — along with AdamsMark LLC, Club Holdings/Quintess and Coral Hospitality — whittled down from an original pool of 20 potential developers in the running to redevelop the historic resort. The firm is also the only Longboat Key-based contender for the project.
The Colony is the first project Langley and Siegal have taken on together. But Siegal said that both he and his business partner bring a unique mix of experience to the Colony.

The most relevant project is Langley’s redevelopment of Cedars, according to Siegal.

“With Randy, what you have is a very successfully operated tennis resort on Longboat Key where individuals own the units, and those units are rented like a hotel, and the owners share the revenue,” said Siegal, describing the parallels between Cedars and the Colony.

Other similarities: Both properties have a restaurant, swimming pool, pool bar and top-notch tennis facilities.

The resort is one of nearly two-dozen real-estate acquisition-and-development projects listed on Langley’s resume.

Siegal said that Langley holds a wide range of contractors’ licenses and brings extensive knowledge of construction and building codes.

Siegal said that he, like Langley, has extensive real-estate development experience, although his expertise is focused on the financial side of the business. Just a few of his projects: the construction and sale of homes ranging from luxury townhouses to 65 homes offered through the Albany Affordable Housing Act; the acquisition, management and sale of 500 apartment units in various buildings; and the redevelopment of more than 1 million square feet of office space, in addition to three shopping centers.

“The challenges at the Colony are well within Arendee Colony’s abilities,” Siegal said. “Randy and I believe that the Colony could, should and most likely will be at least a four-star resort on its current footprint with its current buildings, and it will be one of the most desirable tennis resorts in the country.”

Randy Langley
Randy Langley was born in Lakeland and lived in Clermont for more than 40 years before moving to Longboat Key. He holds a bachelor’s degree in health-service administration from the University of Central Florida, along with a real-estate sales license, broker license, landfill operator Class A license and state-certified Class A general contractor’s license. His resume includes nearly two-dozen real-estate projects. Locally, in addition to owning and managing Cedars Tennis & Fitness Club, Langley is the owner of Barrier Island Building Services Inc. and Barrier Island Realty Inc. He is also the inventor of Gotchatime Inc., a sports-scheduling, computer-software system that is being marketed worldwide.

David Siegal
David Siegal earned bachelor’s degrees in accounting and tax from the University of Rochester and graduated cum laude from the State University of New York-Albany with a law degree from the Albany Law School. He worked for his father’s business, Cohoes Manufacturing Co., for two years before returning to law and also co-founding the Vulcan real-estate entities in Albany. On his own, Siegal bought vacant land in the town of Bethlehem in Albany County and got it rezoned and permitted for a 282-unit apartment complex and a separate luxury residential subdivision. He has lived on Longboat Key since 1992.