- April 18, 2024
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A 2016 affidavit with testimony from Randy Langley, a former Colony Lender LLC investor, claims two current town commissioners in 2014 urged him to support a redevelopment plan by a local developer, saying Unicorp National Developments’ plan “would never be approved by the town.’’
“There’s no disinfectant like sunlight.”— Randy Langley
The affidavit, which does not include specific dates, asserts Langley met with District 2 Commissioner George Spoll, who was not an elected official at the time, and At-large Commissioner Jim Brown, who was then mayor, at Brown’s Longboat Key home and discussed the Orlando-based developer’s proposal to build a resort at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort.
Langley is running for Town Commission this election season, though not against Spoll or Brown.
Brown said in a telephone interview before reviewing the document, “I think this is a false allegation from a convicted felon,” referring to Langley’s car-theft conviction in 1991, when he was 23 years old. Langley’s civil rights were restored in 2017, state records indicate.
In a written statement sent to the Longboat Observer after reviewing the affidavit, Brown wrote: “The sole purpose of the meeting [arranged by Spoll] was to discuss with Mr. Langley whether there was anyway to stop the ongoing law suits that Mr. Langley and Mr. Seigle (sic) had filed against the Colony owners so that the redevelopment could move forward.”
In a telephone interview, Spoll said he was expressing his opinion as an “experienced citizen.”
David Siegal, Langley’s former partner in Arendee LLC, which managed Colony Lender LLC, said he had received calls from Langley after each of the conversations, as noted in the affidavit, took notes of the 2014 conversations and urged his partner in 2016 to write the affidavit. Those notes were used to corroborate Langley’s memory in 2016 when the affidavit was written, Siegal said.
“I can confirm that Randy called me right away and told me what happened, which is what is set forth in the affidavit,” Siegal said. “As he told it to me, I was shocked.”
Langley said he released the document now because he has “no obligations to anyone.”
“There’s no disinfectant like sunlight,” Langley said of releasing the affidavit.
Spoll lobbied Langley in favor of Manfred Welfonder’s plan to develop the site of the former Colony, according to the affidavit.
“I don’t doubt that I could have suggested to Langley that Manfred’s proposal was more likely to be conformative to what the town regulations suggested,” Spoll said in an interview.
Welfonder hoped to build a $195 million, 400-unit project with The Lutgert Cos. The German native has been trying to develop the Colony for more than a decade.
“George stated that if [Langley] wanted a partner or wanted to get anything done with the Colony, [Langley] needed to do business with Manfred [Welfonder], not Chuck Whittall,” according to the affidavit.
Welfonder said Spoll had the right to express his opinion as a private citizen.
“I never told one person what to do. I’m not here to tell people what to do — that’s not my business,” Welfonder said of Spoll’s appeal for Langley to sign a deal with him.
Spoll said he remembers talking with Langley on a drive in his Jaguar to a boat-supply business in Sarasota, as the affidavit notes, and that the conversations could have been about the development of the Colony.
“What does that have to do with what was talked about years ago? I was not on the commission, I was a private citizen,” Spoll said. “If Mr. Whittall’s proposal meets the letter of the law and the intent of the town, I would have to cast my vote in accordance with those regulations.”
Langley asserts in the affidavit that he also met with Spoll and Brown at the then-mayor’s home on Longboat Key.
“George [Spoll] and Jim [Brown] asked me questions about the terms of my contract with ‘the guy in Orlando’, meaning the contract with Colony Lender and Unicorp, and if I had a way to ‘get out of it,’” according to the affidavit.
The document continues: “Jim Brown stated that if the contract was contingent upon getting things done with the Town of Longboat Key, then ‘the guy from Orlando’ would never close because he was never going to get anything done with the Town.”
In the written statement to the Longboat Observer after reviewing the affidavit, Brown said: “While I don’t recall everything that was said during the meeting, the words that Mr. Langley has sworn to do not sound like any language I would use.”
Spoll said he has had many conversations with Brown over the years — the two served as mayor and vice mayor, respectively.
“Do I remember specific conversations? No,” Spoll said of his relationship with Brown. “Would I have had informal conversations with him? Certainly.”
Langley said he wanted to release the affidavit in 2016 when it was written, but Unicorp President Chuck Whittall asked him not to. The Orlando-based developer had then begun his campaign to develop the site at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive.
On June 1, Whittall met the deadline to pay $22 million to Colony Lender LLC to acquire the former Colony’s 2.3-acre recreational property.
“I was wanting to go through the process normally and not get into any type of litigation,” Whittall said in an interview. “I’m just hoping that by the end of the day we get a fair shake on everything.”
Unicorp National Developments Inc. is now proceeding with plans to build a St. Regis Hotel resort and a condominium community. Voters rejected Whttall’s initial plan in 2017, and a scaled-down version is now working its way through town government.
Unicorp is scheduled to testify before the Planning and Zoning Board Feb. 20 about its proposed development of a St. Regis Hotel and Residences with 78 condominiums and 166 tourism units.
Langley said the conversations in his affidavit are “the reason I’m running [for the commission], so we can have integrity on the council.”
