Confidential document appears at Town Hall

Download the Longboat Key Club and Resort's press statement here.

Longboat Key Commissioner Gene Jaleski submitted into the public record last week a pro-forma statement dated August 2006 from Loeb Partners Realty that describes the Longboat Key Club and Resort’s property and lists some financial operation data about the club’s operations.

Two charts in the pro-forma show that from 1999 to 2006, the club has generated average annual dues of $8 million and average annual initiation fees for new members of $1.3 million.

The pro-forma also includes similar information about Galena, Ill.-based Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa, which is another one of Loeb’s resort properties.

Jaleski said a man dropped the information off at his home in the middle of the night, and he felt obligated to submit it to Town Hall, which instantly made the information part of the public record for the club’s Islandside renovation-and-expansion project.

Key Club officials say the pro-forma "pertaining to Eagle Ridge was developed to assist in marketing the hotel because it has been openly for sale for a number of years." And the "pro-forma pertaining to the Longboat Key Club and Resort was developed," club officials say, "for an entirely different purpose — to facilitate a refinancing and valuation of the property in addition to a traditional appraisal."

Key Club General Manager Michael Welly said Loeb routinely refinances its properties to create capital that can be reinvested back in the form of upgrades and new facilities.

“This is simply another attempt to discredit the club during our redevelopment hearings,” said Welly in a prepared statement. “Loeb has refinanced the club twice in the past six years that I’ve been here. The funds generated from the previous refinancing of the property have been reinvested back in the form of upgrades to the hotel, restaurants, spa, fitness center and golf courses — and have assisted in the development of the $4.5 million Tennis Gardens and the $8 million reacquisition of the Longboat Key Moorings marina.

"We look forward to resuming the Club’s Outline Development Plan application hearings and to the approval of the revised application by the Town Commission before the town’s summer break starting July 1,” Welly said.

Key Club Attorney John Patterson said the information submitted to Town Hall is factual but confidential.

“A confidentiality agreement was required to receive these documents and they were marked accordingly,” said Patterson, in a prepared statement. “Typically if you are handed a document designated in this way, you hand it back understanding the possible repercussions. You certainly don’t pass it along.”

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].