Anna Maria property owners Larry Herrig and James Klauer of LBK Realty LLC waited nearly seven years to have the six lots they own at the Pine Avenue-Bay Boulevard intersection rezoned from commercial to retail-office-residential.
On Jan. 27, they got their wish when the city commission voted to change the zoning of those and several other commercial lots to ROR.
For Herrig and Klauer, the rezoning may have come too late.
Two days prior to the commission action, Blackhawk Bank of Illinois filed a foreclosure notice in Florida’s 12th Judicial Circuit Court claiming LBK LLC and Herrig and Klauer individually, defaulted on two notes totaling $3.1 million. The notes were due May 18, 2009, the bank alleged, along with $1.1 million in interest.
Blackhawk also claimed the real estate taxes for the six lots were not paid in 2009 or 2010.
The bank asked for a summary judgment against the company as well as Herrig and Klauer.
No hearing date has been set for the case.
Herrig and Klauer told the city that when they purchased the lots in 2004, the lawyer representing the seller assured them the property zoning would become ROR in a matter of months.
During the city’s comprehensive plan hearings from 2005-2007, the two appeared before the commission on several occasions requesting the property be included in the ROR. The men said they could not develop a viable commercial property on the site, but an ROR structure would attract interest.
Indeed, Pine Avenue Restoration LLC had a contract with LBK Realty to purchase the property contingent on the city changing the zoning to ROR.
Efforts to reach Herrig or Klauer for comment were unsuccessful. Their listed telephone numbers in Sarasota and Dubuque, Iowa, were out of service.