Adams makes push for more Colony units

Andy Adams, a Colony Beach & Tennis Resort owner who already controls 47 Colony units and approximately 50 unit-owner votes, is making a play for more units and a majority vote for the future of the resort property.

Unit owners began receiving correspondence dated March 22 from a Tampa-based law firm this week, announcing Colony Beach Investors LLC (CBI) “would like to extend another offer to purchase additional units because CBI has received several recent inquiries from owners asking if CBI would purchase their units.”

CBI noted it has previously closed on all units offered for sale (within the company’s price range and in accordance with the company’s terms) in response to two prior offers to purchase Colony units.

When asked why the offer was sent to unit owners, Adams told the Longboat Observer, “People were emailing me they wanted to sell their units. We’re not encouraging anyone to sell or not sell.”

To date, CBI purchased 42 units from Feb. 4, 2012, through May 30, 2012. Sale prices for the units the ranged from $65,00 to $80,000.

The current offer, though, is for the purchase of units ranging from $25,000 to $50,000, depending on the condition, square footage and location. According to the letter, the company is willing to extend offers and close within 10 days after execution of a purchase and sale agreement. While the offer is only valid on paper through Thursday, March 28, Adams said that deadline could be extended.

Said Adams: “I never say never to anything.”

Adams also owns three units under W. Andrew Adams and two units under Andy and Dotty Adams. His son, William A. Adams, owns another unit.

The 47 units Adams owns gives him approximately 50 of the resort’s 232 unit owner votes.

No new purchases by Adams or his corporation were recorded on the Sarasota County Clerk of the Courts’ website as of press time.

When asked, Adams said his reasoning for buying more units is obvious.

“Investment purposes would obviously be the answer,” Adams said. “As I told the owners a few weeks ago, my drive is to get the owners back into their beach houses and enjoy the Gulf of Mexico and Longboat Key as opposed to allowing the buildings deteriorate.”

Adams also said he has “no plan on the table” for a luxury condominium project for the property.

A teardown and rebuild of the property requires approval of 75% of unit owners. But a rehabilitation of the current property allows for a lower majority voter threshold of 50%.

With Adams controlling approximately 20% of the votes, a strong push for more units and more votes could jeopardize a vote for a teardown and rebuild of the property.

Adams’s offer was mailed out soon after the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association sent out a four-page ballot to all owners, asking them to pick whether they want a teardown and rebuild or a rehabilitation of the property.

Unit owners have until April 8 to mail back their ballots.

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon said the poll is strictly an advisory vote that will help give the board a sense of what the majority of the unit owners wants before the annual owners meeting is held May 7, on Longboat Key.

When asked his preference for the ballot, Adams said, “I have not voted yet.”

On Feb. 25 through Feb. 27, an Association meeting revealed which way unit owners in attendance were leaning. The board asked owners if they wanted a renovation of the existing units or a teardown and rebuild.

“A straw poll of owners was taken and, aside from the large block of votes that are controlled by Andy Adams, the overwhelming sentiment from the sampling of owners at the meeting was in favor of a new construction project with an outside developer maintaining only the existing beachfront units,” Yablon said in February.

A letter that went along with the ballot also revealed the majority of the Association’s board is not in favor of a renovation.

“The majority of the board is not confident that a 15-acre staged rehabilitation would be successful or that this approach will yield the basis for a competitive resort,” the letter states.

Yablon declined to comment on the recent bid for units from Adams’ company.

Colony owner and rehabilitation supporter Blake Fleetwood, though, said it’s inaccurate to report the majority of unit owners favor a teardown and rebuild project.

“While more people in attendance raised their hands in February for a teardown project, the majority of votes in the room (which belonged to Adams), favored a rehabilitation of the existing units,” Fleetwood said.

To read a copy of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association’s ballot to all owners that asks them to pick whether they want a teardown and rebuild or a rehabilitation of the property, click here.