Commission reviews Colony progress

The Longboat Key Town Commission doesn’t care that Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association attorney Jeffrey Warren says Colony parties have made “significant progress.”

Commissioners want a global resolution and one that doesn’t exclude significant parties like the bankruptcy case’s largest affected creditor — Colony Lender LLC.

“Does your progress and hope you have with Colony Lender LLC involve actually having any conversations with them?” asked Commissioner Terry Gans at the commission’s Monday regular workshop.

Warren said “there’s been substantive communication with them (Colony Lender) and their parties.”

But commissioners aren’t sure if they believe the Association, especially because Colony Lender attorney Michael Assaf has stated in a Tampa bankruptcy court that the Association is not even having settlement discussions with him.

Mayor Jim Brown pressed again.

“Are Colony Lender and you having discussions right now or not?” Brown asked.

“We might be talking to the wall right now, but I think we’ll be having meaningful discussions with them soon,” Warren responded.

Warren also noted Colony Lender supports an Association request that will be forthcoming to ask the commission to grant its third extension for grandfathered tourism units as it works to settle and rebuild the closed hotel site.

Commissioners are frustrated about a third extension request coming before them by the end of the year.

“Repeatedly you have been in here before and asked us to extend and we’re tired of it,” said Commissioner Lynn Larson.

Warren tried to assuage commissioners’ concerns about the lack of a developer now that the Association has ceased ties with JHM Financial Group LLC.

Warren also noted that a settlement will be reviewed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May in his Tampa courtroom in November.

“We have constructively listened to those having complaints with JHM,” Warren said. “We terminated the exclusivity we entered into with JHM in order to reopen on an expedited basis an ability to select a new development partner. No fewer than four partners already are having discussions with us.”

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].