Princeton, NJ investor Peter A. Marks was the lead bidder. He initially offered $15.25 million for the three-golf course property in Haines City, FL, northeast Polk County, 30 minutes from Walt Disney World and 50 miles south of Downtown Orlando.

But Marks missed a May 17 deadline and another one May 20 to make a total $750,000 deposit on his bid. He deposited $250,000 May 8 and was scheduled to put down another $500,000 last Friday. Marks couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline.

But real estate lawyers following the property's bankruptcy trail tell GlobeSt.com Marks' financial backers had second thoughts on their $15.25 million offer. They think the property will go for about $10 million or less than half of what owner Sports Shinko Florida Co. Ltd. paid for the asset ($27 million) in 1987 when it was purchased from New York-based Marine Midland Bank. The bank had earlier foreclosed on the property, then owned by a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Radisson Corp.