Scott Urdang, a Pennsylvania real estate investor, called off the deal after finding out the potential buyers, Belleare Redevelopment Group, planned to submit preliminary development plans to the city. As a result of Urdang canceling the deal, the developers didn't submit the plans to the town--plans that supposedly included converting all or a portion of the resort into expensive Gulf of Mexico-facing condominiums, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Belleare Redevelopment Group had a contract in November 2004 to buy the resort, a 136-acre golf course south of the resort and a one-acre Sand Key, FL beach club, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

The group is comprised of DeBartolo Development of Tampa, First Dartmouth Homes and Sun Vista Ventures, both of St. Petersburg. The group expects to make a revised purchase offer in the first or second quarter, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. A separate offer from another buyer is also in the works, according to brokers familiar with the property.

The resort has been in the National Registry of Historic Places since 1970. Demolishing all or a part of the property would create a public furor and a demand by preservation groups to know financial details of the sale deal, brokers following the transaction tell GlobeSt.com.

"DeBartolo would like to convert the resort to condominiums which would be a natural for the site," a Clearwater broker not associated with the transaction tells GlobeSt.com. "The big issue is to demolish or not to demolish the property. DeBartolo is trying to work a middle ground that would satisfy the community and his partners' plans."