Tern Bay Golf & Country Club Resort, the first phase of a 1,789-acre, 1,810-home development, is now owned by the landscaper.
And Scott Hawkins will sell it to you -- to anyone -- for the $300,000 he's owed on the stalled project.
One caveat: "You can't build a house, can't get a permit, can't do anything until this thing is settled," he said.
Which means Tern Bay will continue to languish in a limbo of defaulted loans, dead-end liens and dueling lawsuits.
Hawkins, president of Hawkins Environmental Inc., of Daytona Beach, is among a bevy of contractors, banks and investors with liens filed against Tern Bay LLC, the project's developer, for unpaid wages and expenditures.
"There are a lot of people who are owed a lot more money than I am," he said. "I was just the one who got the ball rolling."
But, in this case, ownership, regardless how tenuous, is a double-edged sword.
Hawkins, a bank, assorted contractors and Tern Bay LLC are being sued by the Tern Bay Community Development District for unpaid annual fees and payments on $58 million in bonds issued to finance infrastructure -- including $5.6 million to widen 1.77 miles of Burnt Store Road.
Attorney Scott Clark of Winter Park, hired to collect the mounting debt, said it's common for a few CDD landowners to occasionally be in arrears.
But in Tern Bay, all are.
"This is unusual in the history of CDDs in the state," he said. "There have been very, very few CDD defaults, so what you are seeing is a symptom of the overall real estate market. Whether it is CDD debt or bank debt, there is a lot of debt on a lot of properties that aren't going anywhere."
Certainly, Tern Bay Golf & Country Club Resort isn't going anywhere. Its 18-hole golf course is closed and only 14 homes were built before the project simply stopped last summer.
"We shut it down," Hawkins said. "That wasn't our intention, but we have no choice."
'$100 million bag'
Actually, the Tern Bay Development of Regional Impact has a history of going nowhere.
Approved in 1993 as the Caliente Springs DRI, it was revived in 2002 as the Tern Bay DRI by the Tern Bay Development Co., formed by Sarasota developer David Nash and Jack Parker Corp. of Collier County.
The DRI included phased projects that ultimately would build 1,810 homes, 175,000 square feet of retail/office space, a 250-room hotel and a 27-hole golf course.
In 2003, the state Legislature created the Tern Bay CDD to finance $47.54 million in infrastructure.
In 2005, work on the DRI's first phase -- the 913.7-acre Tern Bay Golf & Country Club Resort -- began.
Shortly after, Tern Bay Development sold the project to Tern Bay LLC -- managed by Tampa developers Fred and Carl Streck.
Jack Parker Corp. Vice President David Kuizner said the sale was not based on a projected home-building slump.
"At that time," he said, "the market was going really good."
Tern Bay LLC signed Lennar Corp., the Miami-based corporate builder, as its sole builder.
Lot sales were coordinated by Priority Developers Inc., also managed by the Strecks at the same Tampa address as Tern Bay LLC.
In August, Lennar dropped out.
"Lennar's deal allowed them to abandon the project and forfeit their $10 million deposit," said Ross McIntosh, a Naples land broker who writes an annual Southwest Florida real estate report.
"So Lennar went home," he continued, "leaving Priority holding a $100 million bag, which it didn't remotely have the means to sustain."
Priority Developer's phone number -- same number, same address as Tern Bay LLC -- is now disconnected.
Contractors say they can't contact the Strecks.
"We're having a little trouble with that, too," Clark said. "We've tried them at their registered office. That, apparently, has been shut down."
Carl Streck is now the principal of Trinity Development Group, which has the same Tampa address, but different phone number, as Priority and Tern Bay LLC.
He could not be reached for comment.
'No wiggle room'
Griffith Construction Inc. President Bill Griffith said he built amenities for Tern Bay LLC general contractor JL Wallace.
"I wouldn't say nobody got paid, but I'm still owed money," he said. "That is why we filed our lawsuit."
Griffith said "there is a bunch of small subcontractors" also seeking payment.
Fred Barry, chief operating officer at JL Wallace, could not be reached for comment.
Griffith Construction and Wallace are also suing Tern Bay LLC -- and being sued by Tern Bay CDD. Others include Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, Sunniland Corp., Ocean Bank, Hawkins Environmental and RyanGolf Corp.
RyanGolf Corp., of Deerfield Beach, finished the $5.27 million golf course last April.
RyanGolf President Fidel Garcia would not say how much money -- if any -- his company is owed.
"No comment," he said. "Anything you need to know on that project, you need to contact Lennar."
When reminded Lennar doesn't own the project, Garcia repeated, "No comment."
Hawkins was hired by RyanGolf to landscape the course for $400,000, but has been paid less than $100,000.
"We shelled out $198,000 in early 2007" for grasses and trees, he said, noting he's paid all vendors and employees.
Hawkins has worked with RyanGolf for 20 years. "They've never hung me out to dry before," he said. "But when they didn't get paid, I didn't get paid."
He can't afford to wait for a court ruling to get the $300,000 he's owed.
"When the developer went belly up, I filed the first lien," he said.
He's since been contacted by Ocean Bank, Tern Bay LLC's primary financier.
"We're going back and forth to see if they are going to pay me," Hawkins said. "If they do, I'll release the lien."
Ocean Bank, of Miami, is Florida's largest independent commercial bank.
But the last 18 months have not been good. In 2007, Ocean Bank suffered a $53.2 million net loss and is under a federal order to reduce development loans.
Ocean Bank did not return phone calls.
Hawkins fears the bank won't offer what he's owed.
"They want me to settle, but there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room for me," he said.
New deal steal
Meanwhile, Tern Bay CDD also needs its money.
According to state Department of Financial Services analyst Burton Marshall, its 2007 annual report pegged revenues at $2.2 million, expenditures at $37.5 million and assets at $57.9 million.
The assets are bonds sold in 2005 to institutional investors, such as BlackRock MuniHoldings Fund Inc., of Princeton, N.J.
This year, the first bond payments are due, Clark said.
"Installment for this calendar year is $3 million," he said. "The developer exited the project and didn't pay its portion."
Clark is also trying to collect two years of unpaid annual assessments -- $270,000 in 2006; $280,000 in 2007.
In January, the CDD filed a foreclosure suit against Tern Bay LLC and contractors such as Hawkins.
"Most defendants are just named because they have an interest in the land," Clark said, noting the suit is designed to prompt those with the most to lose to act quickly.
It makes little sense for defendants to let the suit proceed, said district attorney J. Hugh Middlebrooks of Sarasota.
To do so, he said, would be similar to a bank allowing a homeowners association to foreclose on a home.
"Last thing I want to do is lose my $300,000 home because I didn't pay a $1,000 a year assessment," he said. "But if I didn't pay it, the bank -- with an outstanding $250,000 mortgage on it -- would pay before allowing the home to be lost in a tax default."
Middlebrooks added, "The assessments are so small, it makes more sense to pay off our little assessment than to lose the land."
Sarasota developer Pat Neal said whoever steps in will seek a renegotiable bargain.
The project "is actively for sale and will be sold 30 to 40 cents to the dollar," he said. "It will come back with another developer as a new project" no sooner than 2013.
Until then, Griffith said, "I feel sorry for the one person living there."
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