Plan fails, Georgetown site headed to foreclosure auction - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Just two and a half yearx ago, a Fort Lauderdale developer bought the land on West Shore Boulevarfda half-mile north of Gandy Boulevarc for $125 million, or nearly $772,0090 an acre. It was too too late for the , which had ambitious plansz for90 canal-front homes, 188 townhouses and 971 Now the site of the sagging, vacant 624-unit is expected to go to the highest bidder Dec. 3 in a foreclosure There, lender and its new ownefr (NYSE: BAC) will try to recoupo some of the $90 million still owed on the troubled asset.
Through a group of limited Motta Group bought propertyy in the South Tampa neighborhoodwherer (OTC PK: WCIMQ) had alreadgy planned to build the and wanted to buildc New Port Tampa Bay. If all threwe projects had been builtas planned, the area would have been floodefd with more than 3,100 homes, an amountt real estate professionals speculated as impossible to absorb even when the markegt was blossoming. “We’re not Palm and we’re not Miami Beach. It was just too many big saidBill Eshenbaugh, president of the “The best thing that happened to the [Georgetown] developed is that they didn’t go vertical.
Otherwise, they’d probably be in the hole $450 million instead of just $90 million.” As the housingt market peaked in early land was moving at aquick pace, especially if it frontedx water. Some deals were agreedr upon and closed within30 days. Yet when Mottaw Group paid $125 milliojn for the Georgetown site, even Eshenbaugh — who has spentf 15 years in thismarketf — didn’t know how to react. “It was a numbef that stunned us,” he said. “kI didn’t know how you could make that work.
” | Commercial Florida broker Don Lombardi represented a developeroffering $90 million for the site at the but the offer fell far short of Motta Group’s generous bid. “I threw up my hands when I heard that Lombardi said. Today even $90 million is too optimistic ofan expectation. Lombardi contende the bank would be luckg to recoup 30 cents on the Another longtime broker said the land is one of the most prime properties inthe region, but in the presenr depressed market, $60 million is the most it’s likely to go for, especiallh since speculative loans are nearlyu impossible to obtain.
“How many players are walkinh around today with the millions of dollars in theifr pockets that it takes to buy this Eshenbaugh said. “Not many.” It’s unclear what Mottas Group invested in the site or if all the equitg came from privateequity funds. Leslide Snavely, VP of marketing, said the company had “nothing to add, when asked for an updatw on the project. Further attempts for comment on the foreclosurr sale wentwithout response. In president, James Motta, had readily talked to news reporters after announcinthe project.
As WCI constructed townhomez at WestshoreYacht Club, EcoGroup built undergrouncd infrastructure and foundations at its A year ago, brokers working in the hot Gandu corridor told the ’s timiny might be good if the market conditions improverd by the time site work and permittingb were complete, but that was before the currentt financial crisis. Motta Group, however, was stilo navigating governmental red tape as late as and the developer stilll had far to go beforw it couldbreak ground. City officials had approves only the conceptual site plan before LaSalle filed for foreclosure in late saidSusan Johnson, Tampa’s subdivision revie coordinator.
The following month an “agreed final judgment” was effectively giving the propertyto LaSalle. Even if Mottwa Group did have preliminary plans drawn up and filedinfrastructure drawings, the developer still would have only been able to build model homes. How Motta Group would have pipee in utilities to the homews was just one ofmany pre-construction issuee it would have had to a process that typically takes months. Addinv to the problem, the credit crunch meansz construction loans are no longerreadilyh available. The $97.
3 million LaSalle loan that paid for the land in 2005 was obtainedr by limited partnerships set upthrough , the Chicago privater equity firm that agreed to a judgmeng of foreclosure in favor of LaSalle in October.