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No end in sight in Cheval fight

The Lutz community is still wrapped in litigation as new developers move in.

By BILL COATS
Published December 31, 2006

LUTZ - The country club is partly boarded up. The homeowners association is hemorrhaging legal fees.

Yet for many residents of Cheval, one of north Hillsborough's most esteemed gated neighborhoods, December was to be a month of hope.

They expected a jury to end a 21/2-year court fight and decide whether townhouses can squeeze in beside the driving range of Cheval Golf & Country Club. Instead, new battle lines have sprung up.

Two young developers, heirs to vast fortunes earned in the Outback and Shoney's restaurant chains, have entered the fray, seeking to rearrange the golf course. They want to build 93 townhouses that would cover up the 18th fairway and green, split the eighth and ninth holes and crowd the first tee.

Separately, new houses have been proposed in place of the barn and paddocks of the 25-acre Cheval Equestrian Center.

Cheval means "horse" in French and originally was marketed as a polo community. But under this proposal, Cheval's horsehead logo would be the last horse left in Cheval.

On Dec. 6, homeowners voted 9-1 to send their lawyers into battle against the plans. In the annual board election Dec. 13, every candidate opposed the new development.

The problem begins

Cheval splashed into Tampa's imagination in the 1980s as a wealthy equestrian enclave on the county's rural frontier.

It grew in two parts. More than 500 homes went up in Cheval East, the older, statelier portion. Cheval West has more homes, on generally smaller lots. Cheval East has Cheval Golf & Country Club, a tennis center and a chateau-like clubhouse.

What it doesn't have is a large banquet hall. Rand Gentry, the lightning rod through most of this controversy, contends that's where the problem begins.

Gentry is a 62-year-old developer who moved to Cheval in 1995. He bought 23 lots in Cheval West and began developing them for million-dollar houses. And he began eyeing a horse farm just across the wall from the country club's 8th green.

Gentry also became president of Cheval's financially ailing country club. He concluded the club could make ends meet only if it were subsidized by a banquet business.

On Nov. 20, 2003, Gentry merged his two interests. As a majority owner of two investment groups, he bought the country club for $2.7-million and the horse farm for $1-million. He proposed upgrading the country club and paying for it by selling land for homes.

But these plans sent blood boiling in Cheval East. He wanted to build up to 99 townhouses on the fringe of the driving range, where Cheval East residents thought development was banned.

And Gentry proposed to attach his horse farm to Cheval by knocking down the wall separating it from the eighth hole. Then he would build million-dollar houses overlooking the course. Homeowner leaders regarded that as a rogue annexation.

In May 2004, a contractor for Gentry began laying pavers, creating a driveway from Cheval Boulevard to Gentry's horse farm. The homeowners association, which owns Cheval's roads, filed suit to stop him.

Judge Perry Little ruled that Gentry's companies can use the driveway only for golf course maintenance. Don Mihokovich, an attorney for the homeowners, contends that sets a precedent that the homeowners association can block any new development from using its roads.

But Little never decided whether development was banned on the driving range. That question was headed for a jury trial. Then, in August, Gentry sold the driving range.

The latest transaction

The buyers are a pair of 27-year-old developers who are better known for restaurants. Alex Sullivan is son of Chris Sullivan, a co-founder of the giant Outback chain. Adam Schoenbaum is grandson of Alex Schoenbaum, founder of Shoney's.

Their company, Palmcrest Properties, got the deeds to the driving range and six other parcels scattered around the golf course for $9.95-million. But little of that money changed hands. Gentry's country club holds mortgages totaling $9.7-million. No payments are due until 2008 or whenever the lawsuit is resolved. If Palmcrest defaulted, the land would return to the country club.

Gentry, Sullivan and Schoenbaum didn't return telephone calls from the Times.

A hearing by the Hillsborough County Commission on the townhouse plans is set for Jan. 23. A similar hearing on the 24 houses that would replace the equestrian center is set for Jan. 10. Whatever the commissioners decide can be appealed to court.

When word of the land sale spread, "We all said, "Oh, my God. Do you think we'll get our club now?' " recalled Margaret Ochs, a country club member.

Not anytime soon.

No renovations have occurred since Gentry lost the driveway decision in 2004. A letter to country club members last month said proceeds from the land sale would pay for the long-awaited changes. But those proceeds may be long awaited too.

Some worry the homeowners' legal costs will lead to assessments. So far, the homeowners association has paid $300,000 to $400,000 from reserves, Mihokovich said. But the rumors have prompted some real estate agents to urge home sellers in Cheval East to put up to $30,000 in escrow for a legal assessment.

If all this has depressed home prices, the effect has been mild. Over the last five years, the median price of home sales in Cheval East has risen 61 percent, according to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office. The increase in Cheval West was 92 percent; countywide, it was 76 percent.

Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 05:56:51]