Confidential document appears at Town Hall

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 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 says 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.

In a press release, Key Club officials said, “The pro-forma pertaining to Eagle Ridge was developed to assist in marketing the hotel as it has been openly for sale for a number of years. The pro-forma pertaining to the Longboat Key Club was developed 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 says 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 Club 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.

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Amendments Approved
The Town Commission approved an ordinance on second reading at its Thursday, May 20 regular workshop that approves code amendments proposed by the Longboat Key Club and Resort, which club attorneys say make its Islandside renovation-and-expansion project more legally defensible.

Mayor George Spoll, Vice Mayor Jim Brown and Commissioners David Brenner and Lynn Larson approved the code changes. Commissioners Robert Siekmann, Hal Lenobel and Gene Jaleski did not support the code-change ordinance.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected]