Colony unit inspections begin

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon has requested the town begin inspecting units the association wishes to re-open.

In a Jan. 27 e-mail to Planning, Zoning and Building Director Monica Simpson, Yablon requests the town inspect all the owner units in the hotel, as well as three units on the beach known as Beach Units One, Two and Three.

Yablon also requests in a Feb. 4 letter to Simpson that the town inspect seven additional buildings, plus the Beachcomber and Castaway units on the beach.

In total, the association wants inspected all of the 80 to 90 units that were in use before the resort closed in August.

Yablon hopes that because the town previously inspected those in late 2009 after a brief closure, that those units will be the easiest to renovate and will be open to owners this season.

“We expect these units to be operable without a great deal of additional work at this time,” Yablon told the Longboat Observer. He hopes the units can be habitable by April. “Because these units are closest to the beach and are expected to still be fully furnished inside due to their use for tourism through Aug. 15, they are also the most desirable units in the short term for attracting both owner and tourism use.”

The town’s Planning, Zoning and Building Department is currently inspecting the units and will report back to Yablon on what needs to be done to allow the units to be safely occupied again.

The association, Yablon said, will have Sarasota-based Karins Engineering Group perform any renovation work.

In September, Yablon informed unit owners that a $600,500 assessment would be needed to make the necessary repairs to open all 232 units.

The assessment would average out to approximately $2,500 per unit owner.

To renovate the units to attain another 20 to 40 years worth of use, however, David Karins, president of Karins Engineering, estimates the cost to unit owners would be approximately $19.6 million.

And for comparison, Karins estimates a complete demolition of the property and a rebuild of an estimated 277 units (45 additional units could be obtained from the town’s tourism pool of 250 units) would cost approximately $54.4 million.

Renovating approximately 80 to 90 units in the interim, however, is expected to cost less than the above estimate, but prices will not be available until the town releases its inspection requirements.

The association will also continue to sift through renovation proposals for a long-term renovation plan for the property.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]