Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

A happy ending for the Biltmore

By RITA FARLOW
Published March 9, 2007

BELLEAIR - An international asset management firm in Baltimore announced Thursday it wants to buy and save the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa.

Executives with Legg Mason Real Estate Investors would not disclose the proposed purchase price or the closing date, but said in a written statement they had a contract to buy the resort and intend to preserve the 110-year-old hotel.

"Our No. 1 goal is to devise an economically feasible plan to rehabilitate and restore this landmark property," Legg Mason managing director Joseph Penner said in a press release.

Reached Thursday, Penner confirmed the purchase contract but declined to comment further.

Vince Sanfillippo, the chief investment officer for the hotel's current owner, Urdang Capital Management, did not return a call late Thursday afternoon.

But Legg Mason's announcement quoted Sanfillippo as saying the buyer's plan for the resort's future was an important factor in reaching a deal.

A preservationist who led a 2 1/2-year fight to save the 820,000-square-foot hotel applauded the agreement.

"It's a perfect solution for the hotel because they want to save it and they want to save the golf course," said Rae Claire Johnson, president of Friends of the Belleview Biltmore.

"It's just exactly what we demonstrated for and why we asked the city to put the protections on the property, and these people are willing to abide by those protections," she said.

Preservationists have fought to save the historic hotel, which was built by railroad magnate Henry B. Plant, ever since DeBartolo Development announced plans to raze the hotel and build condominiums on the property, said G. Michael Harris, who is on the town's historic preservation board. That deal fell apart in 2005.

Harris said saving the hotel has far-reaching implications.

"It's just as important for the residents of Belleair as the whole future of Pinellas County and the state of Florida," he said. "It's preserving history for future generations."

Legg Mason is involved in the redevelopment and restoration of two historic buildings into a new hotel in Santa Monica, Calif.

Times staff writer Lorri Helfand contributed to this report. Rita Farlow can be reached at farlow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4167.

Fast Facts:

Preserving history

Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa - Built by railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant. Opened in 1897. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 1979.

- Includes 244 rooms, 13,000-square-foot Tiffany Ballroom, 18-hole golf course

Legg Mason Real Estate Investors

- Provides "creative and flexible" commercial real estate financing.

- Part of publicly traded Legg Mason Inc., the world's fifth largest asset manager, with assets of more than $800-billion.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 22:12:25]