Colony loans disputed

Longtime Colony Beach & Tennis Resort owner Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber claims Colony Lender LLC has interfered with his attempts to renovate the resort.

On Jan. 14, Sarasota attorney Charles Bartlett filed a motion, on behalf of Klauber, opposing a Sarasota County Circuit Court hearing that was set for Jan. 24 to determine the amount due on bank loans. The loans were worth more than $10 million when Colony Lender representatives David Siegal and Randy Langley purchased the loans from Bank of America in March 2009.

The loans, Siegal said, became due in September and are now worth $11 million.

In the motion filed, Klauber and his seven corporations, listed as defendants in the foreclosure case, claim that “Colony Lender has been substituted for Bank of America, clearly a continuation of the effort by the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association to simply ‘take over’ the resort and force out its founder and the partnership that had, for decades, operated the Colony and made it a world-renowned resort and tennis facility.”

Klauber declined to comment on the motion.

“The court will take care of that,” Klauber said. “The motion speaks for itself.”

Siegal told the Longboat Observer he does not know why the motion states Colony Lender is interfering with Klauber’s efforts.

“I just don’t know,” Siegal said. “He’s alleging we are in collusion with the association in some way, and that’s simply not the case.”

Colony Lender originally filed a motion Dec. 13 for a hearing to determine the amount due on its overdue loans.

“Plaintiff (Colony Lender) should be denied foreclosure, in that plaintiff is merely seeking to aid and abet others in causing financial hardship and distress to defendants (Klauber) in order to obtain valuable property and property rights belonging to defendant,” the Jan. 14 complaint states. “Colony Lender has intentionally and purposefully interfered with Klauber’s efforts to secure investors to redeem the properties at issue in this case.”

Colony Lender has already been denied a motion for partial summary judgment, according to court documents, and was requesting the Jan. 24 hearing to determine the amount due on the Colony loans.

But Klauber’s motion claims it’s impossible to determine that amount because “the amount due to Colony Lender is inextricably interwoven” with various counter-claims that would reduce the amount due on the loans.

“In a nutshell, we disagree with what they claim to be the amount due because of discrepancies that pre-date Colony Lender,” Bartlett said. “And it’s our view the actions of Colony Lender, since they bought the note, have given rise to lender liability.”

Siegal, meanwhile, said Colony Lender will move to strike portions of Klauber’s motion and request a final hearing to set the amount due on the loans.

“The bottom line is we are a bank that hasn’t been paid in three years, and we are foreclosing in attempt to get paid,” said Siegal, who explained that Colony Lender is not attempting to work with the unit owners regarding a renovation of the property.

But if Colony Lender is able to purchase the loans as the highest bidder when a foreclosure sale is scheduled, Siegal said that could change Colony Lender’s future course of action concerning the resort.

“If I end up being the highest bidder on the day of the foreclosure sale, I will have a lot more to say,” Siegal said.

COLONY CONFIRMATION
In a Jan. 26 letter to Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon, Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Simpson confirms that town attorney David Persson’s opinion means that the unit owners don’t need access to the resort’s 12 tennis courts to re-open their units.

“Since it appears that the zoning concerns have been addressed, the town is now in the position that we can comprehensively and systematically address the condition of the individual tourism units for future occupancy,” wrote Simpson, who wants a list of the units the association wants to re-open, so the town can perform inspections on them.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]