Cabana Club given reprieve

Apologetic owners of the beach resort tell city commissioners they will make the needed repairs.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 3, 2002

CLEARWATER -- City commissioners voted Thursday to budget $141,100 to demolish the decaying Cabana Club Restaurant on Sand Key, but they decided to stay the demolition for the time being and give the owners of the building one more chance to make numerous repairs.

Before the decision, representatives of the restaurant's owners, a partnership that also owns and operates the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa, told commissioners that they were embarrassed and regretful about the condition of the building.

The former restaurant -- which the city cited in 1998 as an unsafe structure subject to demolition -- has problems including dangling, exposed electrical wiring, siding falling off, various rusted metal components and debris littered around it.

"We want to apologize on behalf of the Belleview Biltmore ownership," said Richard Wilhelm, who heads a Miami Beach consulting firm that has been hired by Belleview brass to address problems.

"The bottom line is that property and its surrounding residents have suffered. We can't change what happened yesterday, but we can certainly change what is happening immediately."

Two weeks ago, the commission said it would proceed with demolition and publicly berated the resort owners for breaking promises to bring the property up to minimal standards.

But since then, Wilhelm said, steps have been taken to show the resort owners' good intentions. Among them, an exterminator visited the property to begin getting rid of rats, and crews removed refuse.

More significantly, the hotel company signed an agreement with the city to set aside $253,854 in an escrow account to cover all needed repairs to the property, which are estimated at about $169,000, he said. A contractor has been hired and will begin repairs as soon as the city issues a permit, possibly as early as today, Wilhelm promised.

The agreement binds the company to complete repairs within six months, or the city can take the money and complete repairs.

Another option would be to demolish the building with the tax dollars set aside Thursday night, City Attorney Pam Akin said. In that case, the city would file a lien against the property to try to recover the funds, but the city wouldn't have a good chance of recouping the money, she said.

If the city proceeded with demolition now, Akin advised commissioners, the Belleview Biltmore Resort owners will file a lawsuit to block the demolition.

Since resolving a lawsuit would take an indefinite amount of time, making the agreement with the Biltmore's owners is probably a quicker way to resolve the dispute, Akin said.

Despite the apologies Thursday, commissioners took the opportunity to chide the resort's owners, including Shaffin Jetha, whose family hotel business purchased the hotel in 1997.

Commissioner Whitney Gray, who had her wedding reception there, said the name of the resort had been besmirched.

"I'm not from Missouri, but you need to show us this time," Commissioner Frank Hibbard said. "Otherwise, I'll go out there with a sledgehammer and we'll start working on it."

Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton expressed disappointment that officials had to discuss demolishing the old restaurant before problems were addressed.

Nearby condo dwellers also were critical.

"It took four years to get a pest control person in there," said Frank Simonelli, on behalf of the adjacent Cabana Club condominium. "Sure they can apologize right now, but that is a smack in the face to us ... . They do what they want to do and have been getting away with it for four years."

"If I sound angry, I'm sorry, but I am," he added.

Wilhelm said the past few years were "an incredibly difficult period" for the Belleview Biltmore's owners. A previous deal to reopen the restaurant fell through, he said. Meanwhile, cash flow has been tight, as the resort was completing a $5-million renovation when the recession hit.

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