Owners of the planned Mainsail Beach Lodge and Marina in Holmes Beach say they are not rushing plans for the start of construction of the 40-unit lodge at 5401 Marina Drive.
“We’re not pushing,” said Mainsail Development LLC vice president Joe Brown in Tampa. “We’re waiting for the customers to show up, waiting for the right customer to get here.”
The company sales office for its two Holmes Beach properties — one a finished beachfront inn and the other a proposed lodge — are the 12-unit Mainsail Beach Inn, 101 66th St., Brown said. The company has no plans to re-open its sales trailer at the lodge location.
It appears from the website for Mainsail Beach Inn that the two properties are marketed as one. Lodge residences and amenities are touted along with the inn, with little distinction.
“We’re really waiting for the season. We’re bullish on the coming tourist season, and we’re waiting to see how people react to our plans,” he said.
The plan seems to have worked well at the Mainsail Beach Inn. Nine of the 12 units have been sold without major marketing, Brown said.
Once the remaining three units are sold, Mainsail will turn its attention to the lodge.
“Everyone wants the beach, but we’re not going to conduct a fire sale at the lodge. We’re going to offer the right units at the right time, and now is not the right time, we believe. We’re being very cautious,” he said.
Mainsail Lodge, formerly Tidemark Lodge, has been stalled for nearly 10 years since the site-plan was approved in August 2001 by the Holmes Beach City Commission.
The original developer, Nick Easterling, filed bankruptcy in 2004, and subsequent potential buyers were unable to put together the financing to complete a purchase through the bankruptcy court.
After Easterling, the property went through two failed reorganization efforts until Mainsail bought the vacant property for $2 million in a June 2009 foreclosure sale. The company also purchased at the same time the beach resort for $6 million.
Mainsail took in some local investors, including restaurant owner Ed Chiles of Anna Maria, and Mike and Lizzie Vann Thrasher, also of Anna Maria.
At the time of the purchase, Mainsail president Joe Collier said he hoped to begin construction of the lodge by Jan. 1, 2010. Although no construction has taken place, a number of slots at the 60-slip marina have been rented and some Island fishing guides keep their boats tied up there.
But values of units in the Island condominium market have not returned to their 2006-07 levels or even come close, Brown indicated, and the company is waiting for an upswing in values. With enough interest from buyers this season, however, the time for construction might be right in 2011, he said.
Mainsail plans to offer lodge units in the low-$400,000 range. The three remaining condos at the Mainsail Beach Inn are for sale in the $600,000 range, Brown said.