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Letter to the editor

Biltmore deal cost close to $30.3M

It was nearly double the resort's selling price in 1997.

By MIKE DONILA
Published July 3, 2007

"It's a touch of Americana," said Belleair Mayor Gary Katica of the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa. "This has stood the test of time and has that certain beauty that reaches down at the people."
	[Times photo: Scott Keeler]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] Roofers Anthony Migliore (left) and Victor Scinto install a temporary roofing skin on the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa, which is getting a new roof.

The night the sale of the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa closed, a reporter e-mailed Joseph Penner to ask how much his investment firm paid for the historic property.

Too much, Penner replied coyly.

Turns out, Los Angeles-based Legg Mason Real Estate Investors paid nearly $30.3-million -- nearly double the resort's selling price in 1997 -- according to public records recorded Friday at the Pinellas County Clerk of Court.

Locals, though, aren't necessarily talking about the numbers. They're just happy that the 110-year-old landmark was sold to someone who wants to keep the old doors open, not tear them off.

"It's really not what they paid for it," said preservationist Rae Claire Johnson, president of Friends of the Belleview Biltmore. "The important point is what they're going to put into it ... to bring it up to the level that it needs to be to survive over the long-term."

Johnson, who led a 21/2-year fight to save the 820, 000-square-foot hotel, added: "They're really going to make it shine, and in my opinion when it's done it will end up being one of the top properties in the Southeast."

Penner, a Legg Mason managing director, declined Monday to comment on the transaction, saying "there's nothing to tell you right now."

"When we have a concrete plan, we'll invite everyone out to look at it," Penner said. "And my hope is that we put something together that everyone likes."

Vincent Sanfilippo, chief investment officer for Urdang Capital Management, which helped the resort's former owner, Belleview Biltmore Resort LTD, sell the property, declined to comment on the sale.

In a statement, Sanfilippo said "we wish Legg Mason much success in their efforts to renovate the property to enhance and preserve it for generations to come."

Belleair Mayor Gary Katica said the new owners will be back in town in late August or early September to talk further about proposed renovations.

He said they plan to upgrade the rooms and the pool and build a convention center.

"It's a touch of Americana," said Katica, who recently traveled overseas. "You can go to Europe and see something that's a thousand years old and in the United States a building gets a little old and it's gone. This has stood the test of time and has that certain beauty that reaches down at the people."

Built by railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant, the 244-room hotel, which also features a 13,000-square-foot Tiffany ballroom, opened in 1897.

The hotel has changed ownership a number of times in the past 20 years.

In 1990, Mido Development, a Japanese ownership group, bought it for $27-million.

Atlanta hotelier Salim Jetha in 1997 paid $16-million for it. Urdang became a general partner in the resort in 2003.

While it operated as a hotel and had been renovated over the years, preservationists got worried in 2004 when DeBartolo Development announced plans to raze the hotel and build condominiums. That deal fell apart in 2005, setting the stage for Legg Mason's acquisition.

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 00:28:49]