Colony subcommittee picks developer

A Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association Owners’ Advisory Committee has picked Stamford, Conn.-based JHM Financial Group LLC as its top developer choice to teardown and rebuild the shuttered resort at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon made the announcement to unit owners in an email Wednesday.

JHM was selected over Sarasota-based Vanguard Land LLC. Both development companies had plans to perform a teardown and rebuild of the property.

Neither group, though, has provided figures showing what the purchase costs would be for ownership of new units, although both groups are offering whole ownership, fractional and buyout options.

The groups had declined to discuss their plans for the resort until one of them is selected. JHM now has an opportunity to do so behind closed doors at the Association’s owners meeting on May 6-7.

“With this recommendation, I renew my earlier call to end our house divided,” said Yablon, in the email to owners. “Now, working with JHM, we have at hand the means to do so. We have a real opportunity here, let's all make it work.”

On May 7, though, the Association will unveil who won five board seats up for re-election.

When asked what would happen if a new slate of board members that favors a rehabilitation of the property is chosen on May 7 after a developer opting for a rebuild makes presentations, Yablon said, “If we recommend all over the Key what we believe our owners want and a new board were to pull the plug on months worth of work a committee has done and tell the developer chosen to pack their bags, it would raise a lot of eyebrows,” Yablon said. “If a new board is chosen, they need to think very carefully about unwinding everything a committee and the Association has spent months putting together.”

For more information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s May 9 Longboat Observer.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].