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JENNIFER FARRELLThe apartment tower, 880 Mandalay, will be remodeled and sold as condominiums. Current residents have a year to buy in or move.
CLEARWATER - A trio of Miami investors has purchased Clearwater Beach's oldest high-rise, 880 Mandalay, and plans to renovate and transform the 12-story apartment building into condominiums.
Clearwater Beach Development LLC will rename the beachfront complex "Regatta Beach Club," selling its 350 units through Crescent Heights, a nationwide high-rise development and marketing company based in Miami.
Current tenants have 12 months to purchase condos in the building or move out, said Brian Duchman, national marketing director for Crescent Heights.
"Our main priorities are to make sure that we accommodate our present tenants," he said. "Our concept is certainly not to uproot anybody from their homes. . . . They have a year to continue to live there."
That promise came as cold comfort Tuesday to Diana Sherman, who moved out of her Largo home into a one-bedroom with a gulf view at 880 Mandalay just three months ago.
"I just wish that they had told me," she said. "Because I might have looked somewhere else."
Sherman, who said she is in her late 50s, works as a legal secretary in the county attorney's office. She has no plans to buy one of the refurbished condos, which Duchman said will start under $300,000.
"I could never afford it," Sherman said. "I'll probably end up buying a place for $30,000."
Rumors of the sale had been swirling on the beach for months, but residents learned the deal was official this week with a letter from Trammel Crow Residential Services, the building's former management company.
On Tuesday, letters from the new owners hit residents' mailboxes announcing plans for renovations and promising renderings soon.
A suggestion box was placed at the front desk.
Duchman said the multimillion dollar project will improve the existing building, with new windows, sliding balcony doors, a film screening room and makeovers for common areas.
The building's exterior will also get a facelift.
Construction is expected to begin within 30 days, according to Duchman.
"We're trying to create some value on the beach," he said. "We want to make sure that everything goes very smooth."
The high-rise was originally planned as the largest hotel on the west coast of Florida when construction began on the site in the 1920s, according to Clearwater historian Mike Sanders.
But work on the Mandalay Hotel foundered before three stories were complete, said Sanders. The structure was later torn down to make way for Mandalay Shores, the existing structure built 42 years ago.
In 1979, tenants of the building set up an association and contributed nearly $1-million to buy the waterfront complex so it wouldn't be converted into condominiums. The nonprofit later filed - unsuccessfully - for bankruptcy protection, and the effort to block condos eventually failed.
Details of the sale, finalized Friday, have not been made public. Duchman identified the new owners as Sonny Kahn, Russell Galbut and Bruce Menin, all of Miami and founders of Crescent Heights. Pinellas County property records show the building is valued at $19.2-million.
On Tuesday, Sherman said she is in no rush to find a new home.
"I don't want to start looking." she said. "What would I do if I found a place now?"
- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com