Welly's checkout day: Oct. 31

Michael Welly is checking out from the Longboat Key Club and Resort after eight-and-a-half years as its general manager.

Welly confirmed his departure last week to the Longboat Observer.

“My last day is Oct. 31,” he said, declining to comment further.

The Delray Beach-based Ocean Properties Ltd. announced plans to buy the resort last week for an undisclosed price.

Andy Berger, Ocean Properties vice president of operations, said in a news release announcing the sale that the company anticipates closing by the end of the month.

Welly alluded to his possible departure last week after news of the sale broke when he told the Longboat Observer, “It’s been a wonderful eight-and-a-half years, and it’s been my longest assignment to date.”

Welly became general manager of the Key Club in March 2004, three months after he joined Key Club parent company Loeb Partners Realty.

The Cleveland native’s résumé included 23 years as an executive with Sheraton Hotels; overseeing operations for more than 40 properties, including the five-star Grand Bay resort, in Miami; as executive vice president of operations for Carnival Hotels, Resorts and Casinos; managing the Westin Hotels & Resorts’ Innisbrook Resort; and serving as senior vice president of the luxury resort division of Wyndham International.

Welly replaced Shannon Hotel Group owners W. Shane Eagan and A. Thomas Rasmussen, who had managed the Key Club since April 1990. At the time, Eagan and Rasmussen agreed to serve as consultants for the proposed $22 million Ca d’ Coure Islandside expansion plan, which was before the town at the time. Welly ultimately recommended withdrawing the plan to Loeb, but came back with a larger proposed $400 million redevelopment-and-expansion plan in 2008.

According to Mayor Jim Brown, Welly’s involvement in the Longboat Key community has gone beyond the Key Club. The general manager is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key and Sarasota Tiger Bay Club and has also volunteered Key Club facilities for community events, such as last weekend’s Hal and Hazel Lenobel Appreciation Day and Sunday’s Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce Duathlon and Triathlon.

“Michael has made the Key Club a good sort of corporate citizen,” Brown said. “He’s been involved in a lot of things going on all over the Key. I hope Ocean Properties continues that involvement.”