Colony: The slow collapse

The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort — a landmark for 41 years that gave many permanent residents their first glimpse of Longboat Key — closed its doors for good Aug. 15, 2010.

Five years later, the 18-acre beachfront resort remains locked up and vacant. A town building official reported during 2013 assessments of conditions at the resort: “It’s slowly collapsing upon itself.”

Efforts to redevelop the property have also collapsed.

Two agreements the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association signed with developers to resurrect the resort failed. There are more legal disputes and bankruptcy hearings than those following the process can count. And the buildings at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive are nowhere close to being razed and rebuilt on the prime piece of Gulf-front real estate.

The impact of the dilapidated eyesore on Longboat Key is felt each and every day, according to officials and those involved with years of Colony legal disputes.

“When the Colony closed, the economy was going south, and other businesses on the Key and in the community were also trying to survive,” said Mayor Jack Duncan. “In my mind, the negative impact of the Colony is felt more today than it was five years ago because the economy has rebounded. We have new condos and hotels being built, and this eyesore continues to sit here and look worse and worse every single day. Now, it’s more aesthetics than economics.”

Katie Moulton, former Colony Beach & Tennis Resort general manager, says those aesthetics make her sick to her stomach.

“It’s like an old, shuttered ghost of a place that’s supposed to be alive full of happy memories for generations of people to come,” Moulton said. “In its current state it reminds me of a combination of greed, egos and unreasonable people unwilling to compromise gone terribly wrong.”

Tourism loss

Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce President Gail Loefgren said she’s still shocked the Colony is closed every time she drives by it.

“It’s a terrible sight for visitors and residents to witness on what’s otherwise one of the most premier communities in the country,” Loefgren said.

Loefgren still gets visitors dropping in who ask about the Colony and why it has not reopened at the beginning of each season. And some are returning for the first time and had no idea the Colony has since closed.

“People connect with places they stayed on Longboat Key and don’t forget what brought them joy and made them want to come back to visit again,” Loefgren said. “People still miss and ask about the Holiday Inn, so they ask about the Colony tenfold.”

Visit Sarasota County President Virginia Haley cites the Colony’s closing as “the beginning of some of the worst couple economic and tourism months this area has ever witnessed,” which was compounded by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that led many visitors to cancel reservations, even though local beaches never saw any oil wash ashore.

To this day, Haley said she gets more people asking what happened to the Colony than any other hotel or tourism property that was lost to the recession.

“Many people came to be just not Longboat Key residents but Sarasota residents after visiting the Colony,” Haley said. “We lost that cache the day we lost the Colony.”

Although Haley is quick to point out the economy has rebounded, and new hotels are being built on the island and the mainland, she said she won’t be satisfied until a resort is back on the Colony site.

“There’s not a lot of other opportunities to get another beachfront resort in this area,” Haley said. “It’s my No. 1 on a tourism wish list for the Sarasota County area.”

Property value impact?

Loss of tourism isn’t the only impact the resort’s closure five years ago has had on the Key.

Geographically, no one has been more impacted by the resort’s closure from a visual and property value standpoint than next-door neighbors at the Aquarius Club.

Greg Van Howe told the Longboat Observer the resort next door was an asset and a major selling point because of its restaurants and shops when he bought his unit in 2003.

Fast forward to Aug. 15, 2015, and the dilapidated resort is an eyesore and a nuisance.

What once was a vibrant and bustling resort is now a broken down mess that includes the occasional rat scurrying around the boarded up wooden buildings, neighbors say.

“There’s a slum on Longboat Key, and I live next to it,” Van Howe said.

The Colony, some say, is now a deterrent for buyers interested in Aquarius or the 10-unit Tencon property, which sits just south of the Colony.

But the effect is difficult to measure because the Colony closed in 2010 during the slowest years for Longboat Key real estate and at a time when other businesses and hotels such as the Holiday Inn were already closed.

Another unknown is how many guests would have stayed at the Colony over the past five years and eventually purchased Longboat Key property.

Barbara Ackerman, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate’s The Barbara Ackerman Group said she misses the Colony every day. 

“There isn’t any question that not having the Colony as a destination for tourists, who are our future buyers, has been missed tremendously,” Ackerman said. 

“The Colony was part of our heritage, and people began living here after staying at the Colony,” said Cheryl Loeffler, of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty.

Loeffler’s first introduction to the island was also via a visit to the resort.

“Now (Longboat) has to be more of a buying destination,” she said.

Town takes passive stance

In April 2013, the Longboat Key Town Commission held several Colony workshops to encourage the parties to reach an agreement.

And in December 2013, the commission came close to reviewing a building-by-building assessment of the property to consider condemning the property before canceling the hearings.

Today, Duncan said the commission has taken a much more passive approach because the town realizes there’s nothing that can be done other than ensure the property is boarded up and not violating any ordinances that violate the health, safety and welfare of the island’s residents.

“For years we pushed and tried to help find a positive outcome, and now it’s more of a ‘I give up, just let me know when it happens,’ approach,” Duncan said.

In the meantime, Duncan said it’s hard for him and other residents to drive past the resort without feeling embarrassed.

“Getting all the issues resolved and making that a world-class resort should be the focal point of all interested parties, and it’s a shame we’re still sitting here five years later talking about it and making the same plea,” he said.