Abandoned - The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort

[Music] what's up guys my name is Jake and welcome to abandoned episode 42 this is the show where we talk about some of the most interesting abandoned places in the world this video is sponsored by Nord bpn for a limited time get 75% off a three-year plan at Nord VPN comm slash BSF around a year ago I had produced a short exploration slash documentary on the colony beach & tennis resort in Sarasota Florida I had lightly touched on the basic history of the fascinating abandoned beach resort and now since the resort is finally gone I figured I should explore even further into the history of the iconic and enormous hotel & timeshare resort so let's take a look at the colony beach & tennis resort separating the Sarasota Bay to the Gulf of Mexico sits the wealthy island of Longboat Key a strip of beach and property which you would be hard-pressed to find a detached house for under a million dollars it's also home to like most of Florida's beaches hotels and condominium complexes most of the island has been heavily developed by these properties however back in the early 1950s it was a different story a man named herb field had purchased around 15 acres of forested land on the mostly vacant island his plan was to build a multi building beach resort to cater to the growing florida tourism market herb field had successfully opened a pretty large beachfront resort on Longboat Key called the colony by 1969 a Sarasota businessman named Murray clobber known as Murph had purchased the property with the intent to grow the beach resorted to something even larger by the early 1970s Murray clobber had begun demolishing the former structures on the land and building new two-story wooden buildings containing several suites the resort expanded even further in the 80s with a six storey tower providing the best views in the most luxurious Suites the resort now racked up a total of 21 tennis courts as well and became the first all suites resort in America the colony Beach and Tennis resort had clearly shifted focus a bit under clobbers ownership along with industry legend the resort had been altered to cater to tennis enthusiasts of both professional and amateur clobber had theorized that tennis would always be a popular sport among families and travelers to Florida the incorporation of tennis courts within the heart of the resort would provide entertainment and activity the colony also portrayed itself as a very active experience centering a lot of their activities around sport and health encouraging everyone to get out and have fun Murph along with Tennis Hall of Fame journalist bud Collins had also developed activities to encourage players of no experience to come out and hack around the courts this made the colony the number one tennis resort in America for eight consecutive years according to Tennis Magazine clobber had also crafted a very unique idea for how the rooms would be rented for vacation stay since Suites of all sides were built ranging from a single-story standard one-bedroom Villa all the way up to lofts with multiple bedroom suites clobber had wanted to operate the resort in a way which is now known as the standard timeshare model he had crafted a sort of hybrid concept of condo and hotel with the opportunity to own one of the 237 units at the colony in the early 1970s potential buyers would have to put up $50,000 to $80,000 to purchase the Suites this was a time before resident condo laws came into effect which under clobber put the colony into a unique position of being part condominium part short-term hotel this was a very early iteration of the timeshare model as unit owners were seen as investors and given 30 days out of the year to use their pre-established units the rest of the time they were sold and operated how a traditional hotel would through the coming years the colony built a very special reputation most of the resorts high-level positions were being run by the club or family most notably his daughter acting as general manager and his son as lead chef at there now locally famous restaurant the property grew into a family-friendly resort packed with fun activities and down-to-earth atmosphere that you couldn't really find anywhere else on Longboat Key not only was it a great place to work but the homey atmosphere for guests created its own group of families and couples who would plan their whole vacations to soda I know this because I sat down with Jessica brada a former guest at the resort who has been traveling there for years just to stay at the colony my parents would be like you know we're gonna plan another trip to the colony they were never like we're we're gonna be going to Florida somewhere I think you can go you can travel anywhere and go to a chain resort and this was just not that it wasn't like random hole in the wall either you know they were famous people went there you know and and so the fact that it still is able to maintain like a charm of a family resort is I think in retrospect really pretty impressive um but it's definitely what kept us going year after year because I think that if it was just like any other nice place that are everywhere in Florida you know we might have chose the other Shore you know I could gone to the east coast of Florida one year or maybe we would have gone to a totally different location another year you know and it definitely it was like the whole vibe of the place made it so that I know for us that it was worth making it a regular vacation instead of just you know one or two time thing in 2001 the resort became even more widely known for a very important person staying there on a day that changed the world the hotel has seen its share of celebrities like Denzel Washington and Burt Reynolds but also several presidents and nominees like Jimmy Carter and Al Gore on September 10th 2001 president george w bush was in sarasota for an educational tour which the following day would bring him to the Booker elementary school however that night the President of the United States a dinner with several other political figures including Florida State Governor at the colony's signature beachside restaurant this was a huge deal for the resort as a custom menu was created for the events and President Bush fell asleep in one of the three pentoses in the main tower the following September day George Bush went for a morning to around Longboat Key then transported to the school where he was alerted of the events in New York and from then the world was changed there was also rumors and a police report filed that suspicious men had been at the colony on the 10th and shouted something of a threat at the president however I couldn't find any other concrete evidence and the claim just remains at a notable rumor problems began after the 2004 hurricane season which severely damaged much of the relatively weak wooden buildings with the decline of tourism post 9/11 this was a deadly combination that financially hit the resort hard clobber had estimated the necessary repairs to cost well over 12 million dollars by 2006 with the housing crisis just starting clobber had requested a mandatory payment of $15,000 per condo owner within the colony to pay outs and units and building repairs andy adams was an owner of several units on the 4th floor of the mid-rise tower in the colony he had requested to turn the three separate units he owned inside the tower into one large office living space and stay longer than the allowed 30 days a year however this request was soon denied by Murray clobber upset by this Adams had joined the condo association board of owners from the colony and took leadership along with other angry owners they abandon the $15,000 payment for the repairs and basically told the clobber family to do it themselves clobber fired back at the Association now demanding $50,000 per unit owner to put an end to the ever increasing decay this of course was shot down immediately by the owners Association and it wasn't long after that that the litigation began this came at the worst time as well since the United States was going through the recession which meant tourism was slumping and rooms were just not being filled while this was all happening the resort continued to fall under harsh decay with little upkeep due to all these factors the ICONic normally packed restaurant within the resort had closed just to offer Sunday brunch which was obviously a significant sign that the colony was in a detrimental down slope by late 2009 a judge had sided with the condo association with the matter of a dean marie clobber from manager of the property and due to the astronomical legal fees it forced clobber into bankruptcy of course he appealed the judgment and actually one but clobber still had a hefty bank loan which he had acquired by putting part of the colony property he owned up his collateral this was eventually paid off but not enough time to where the association had brought the entire property to a point where it was not financially sustainable to keep it operating the colony was well in need of over fourteen million dollars worth of repairs so in august of 2010 the colony beach in tennis resort had closed permanently though to the clobber family this was just temporary as they were hopeful and almost certain that it would reopen soon the town of longbow key took control of the property for the time being as the condo association continued to fight to reopen the property under new investors which of course the clawber family finds while all of this was happening the property continued to sit unused and now abandon clobbers personal penthouse had been broken into by vandals and had thousands of dollars of art destroyed while the units owned by clobber had been cleared out the units still under control of the association were left with personal items inside unit owners were not allowed to enter by this point due to the city declaring them as unsafe structures so the colony went through a live auction where fixtures and equipment were sold off including most of the personal items within Murray clobbers penthouse units though a significant amount of items were left on the property in 2013 Chuck Whittle president of an Orlando based development company had joined forces with the condo association to work on a deal for redevelopment by this time an inground chain-link fence had been built surrounding the property deterring the ever-increasing vandalization UNICOR began with various proposals to redevelop the colonies starting with a timeshare owner buyouts of a hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars and place a smaller hotel slash condo resort on the land these proposals had all been rejected which just left passing time and a decaying resort the litigation continued into 2016 with andy adams leading the association and chuck whittle made a deal that with what they build it should be similar to the condo / Hotel model that is seen in downtown Sarasota with the ritz-carlton of course this new development had to be ultra premium that led to the proposal that was actually finally somewhat liked and approved UNICOR filed plans for a 166 room st. Regis Hotel by Marriott this 5-star resort would also feature a hundred and two residential condo units this plan was submitted in 2017 when UNICOR panned the colony condo association reached a deal to pay outstanding unit owners a hundred and thirty thousand dollars to two hundred thousand dollars each for their condo deed as late 2018 came through the colony saw its last days the town of longbow key ordered an emergency demolition order on the property citing its immediate risk to public health and by the end of 2018 a fire broke out in the penthouse of the tower and soon after the entire property had been demolished finally putting an end to the iconic resort buildings were demolished incredibly with beds still made and suites in unbelievable condition and now the burden of the enormous property is resolved and perhaps construction on the new st. Regis Hotel will start with the conservative opening date of 2022 and while it's sad to see the resort go even for me after the state it had been in this is honestly what needed to happen even Katy clobber has been outspoken on her support of the new developments as the st. Regis Hotel now promises to have a recreation of the iconic monkey room bar from the original dining room even though I never had the opportunity of being a guest at the colony being there myself and it's abandoned states touring through the former Suites and walking through the lush pathways around the resort I felt the sense of a lost community and saw why it had been so special to so many people and for that reason I've been following updates on it very closely at the time of writing this my abandoned beach resort video still remains my favorite video because of how spectacular the colony was and how surreal it felt being there and I'm not alone so many people who stayed there will always hold the colony as that special place they always used to visit and while the new st. Regis may not hold the same feelings the legacy of the colony and MuRF clobber will always live on in Longboat Key and in timeshare resorts across the country since I travel a lot sometimes even in sketchy motels while using Wi-Fi from unknown sources I have the peace of mind knowing that I'm protected by Nord VPN using their six connections I know all of my devices are secured by military-grade protection from they're extremely fast servers you can get 75% off a three-year plan at Nord VPN dot-com / BSF this special offer makes her subscription just $2.99 per month that's Nord VPN comm / BSF they're a great service I use every day personally and by supporting them you're supporting the show anyway guys my name is Jake follow us on Twitter Instagram and snapchat and thank you very much [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 687,958

Rating: 4.9167657 out of 5

Keywords: the colony beach resort, longboat key, sarasota florida, florida, al gore, george bush, 9/11, george w bush, history, educational, learning, family friendly, clean, PG, abandoned, abandoned hotel, abandoned resort, tennis resort, beach house, penthouses, lawsuit, murray klauber, st regis hotel, demolition, creepy, surreal, famous people, ritz carlton, abandoned huge building, exploration

Id: uzOgYu-EPos

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 16 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/StingKing456]

FYI, this YouTuber, brightsun films has tons of quality stuff, especially if you're a theme park nut. Cool to see be did one on something in Sarasota!!

[u/rickman1011]

Stayed there many seasons. Horrible to see a true representation of old Florida fall to disrepair. Many a fond memory.

[u/SirNoodlesworth]

Just saw this as well. I follow his videos.

I grew up on the other side of The Colony. My step father was the purchasing manager so I spent a lot of time around the staff and offices of the resort. Lots of memories.