Lessors clam up about Morris' condo project

ST. PETERSBURG -- Members of a longtime St. Petersburg family were eager to talk last week about the project to be built on their land: two 20-story condominium towers in the 400 block of Beach Drive NE.

Even after questions about the developer's background surfaced, the Hamilton family still said they expected the project to move forward. But this week, the family has stopped speaking publicly, and it remained unclear Tuesday whether the developer, Paul Koehler Morris, had made the second scheduled six-figure lease payment needed to secure the land.

Morris Development Group LLC is leasing the land from the Hamiltons for a 99-year term. Morris, 54, founded Morris Development when he moved to St. Petersburg after filing bankruptcy in California in 1999.

Hamilton family members had said the deadline for the second payment was Monday. But they did not return repeated telephone calls from a reporter Monday or Tuesday.

"I'm not supposed to say anything," said John M. Hamilton, a retired St. Petersburg plastic surgeon and the family patriarch, when reached at his home Tuesday afternoon. "Things are progressing. There's no news."

The president of family company Hamilton Properties, Courtnay Hamilton, also did not return calls, and neither did his sister, Susan Churuti, who serves as the Pinellas County attorney. Courtnay Hamilton has said Churuti's husband, Robert Churuti, helped to negotiate the lease arrangement with Morris.

For years, the 400 block of Beach Drive NE was the location of John M. Hamilton's office. Over four decades, he acquired all the other lots in the block.

He liked Morris' proposal for the Villas, a condominium project that would also contain three levels of retail businesses, calling it a brilliant idea and a beautiful plan.

Morris Development Group did make the first lease payment of about a quarter-million dollars earlier this year, Courtnay Hamilton has said. Morris Development also got the necessary city approvals to build the project.

Morris declared assets of only $2,600 in Bankruptcy Court three years ago, so it has been unclear how he intended to finance such a large project. He mortgaged his right to lease the land to a partnership with local investors on April 29, securing a $250,000 loan. That figure is close to the amount of the first payment, Courtnay Hamilton has said, though he didn't know whether it was the payment's source.

Morris has said that he had secured project financing from a "registered banking entity" out of state, but he declined to name it. Morris did not return calls Tuesday.

John M. Hamilton said last week that the family was hoping Morris' main financing would come through soon. But he worried that public revelations about Morris' background could jeopardize that.

Last week, articles in the St. Petersburg Times revealed how Morris could document none of the 10 to 25 years of real estate development experience he has claimed. The stories also told how Morris said "a different person" filed bankruptcy before he was shown his signature on the court papers.

Morris hosted a Kids Art Day event at the project site Saturday in which schoolchildren painted murals on the construction fence. But a scheduled 6 p.m. groundbreaking gala did not occur.

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