Colony owners approve settlement

More than 75% of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort unit owners approved a proposed settlement that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May will review Friday, Nov. 22, in his Tampa courtroom.

There’s only one hitch.

Developer Andy Adams, who owns 58 Colony units with his family and his corporate affiliates, noted on their approval ballots through proxies that the block of 58 votes are subject to a list of conditions.

Unit owners will discuss those conditions, which haven’t been released, during an owners meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20.

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association Treasurer Bob Erazmus told unit owners in a Nov. 19 email that owners of 205 units voted either in person or by proxy to approve the settlement. Only three units voted against the settlement. Owners of 228 units were eligible to vote.

“By including the Adams voters, the required 75% approval vote was substantially exceeded,” Erazmus wrote in the email.

Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association President Jay Yablon declined to comment, only noting that the association will be addressing Adams’ concerns and conditions before Wednesday’s meeting.

The settlement that May will review at 9 a.m. Friday in Tampa offers longtime Colony owner Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber $3 million over five years through a “Klauber Family Consulting Agreement.”

The settlement, which a U.S. bankruptcy trustee also signed off on, doles out $2.3 million to the trustee to pay creditors and absolves the association of a $25 million judgment for damages Klauber won in a bankruptcy appeals court last year.

But the settlement, if May approves it, doesn’t mark the end of litigation surrounding the Colony.

The association still has to negotiate a settlement with Colony Lender LLC, which owns bank loans on Klauber’s property and is seeking to collect on a recent judgment of more than $13 million.

Colony Lender is the largest creditor, and Colony Lender principal David Siegal has argued the proposed settlement is “just an attempt to circumvent creditors and pay Klauber without paying creditors.”

Siegal, who owns two Colony units and urged owners to vote against the settlement in an email last week, voted against the settlement Monday.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].