Southpinellas: Rutland Estates is in bank's hands now

Rutland Estates is in bank's hands now

AmSouth Bank controls the waterfront project. Plans may include selling the property to another developer.

By SHARON BOND

ST. PETERSBURG -- The bankruptcy case involving Rutland Estates waterfront community was dismissed last month, and the property sold at foreclosure. AmSouth Bank now has the unfinished development.

Bank officials were unavailable Friday to say what will happen with the project.

But they told Carole Metour of St. Petersburg, one of the buyers of a Rutland Estates condominium, that the property was under contract to be sold to another developer.

Metour put down $22,000 for a condominium. She said she has not received any of the money back. Since the development stalled, she bought another house in St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, nothing has changed at the site at 5200 Fourth St. S, where three unfinished condominium buildings sit, open to the elements. Construction stopped in May 1999.

"People are going in there and throwing trash in there. It is really sad to see," said Cassie Rucks, who lives across the street from the project. She and other neighbors fought the development of the dense waterfront forest that was part of the historic Rutland Estate.

Developer Robert Swain bought the Rutland Estate in 1997. The property included the Rutland mansion, built in 1913, and 14 acres on Little Bayou. Swain sold the mansion and a few acres, leaving 9.5 acres on which he planned to build 54 townhomes in duplex buildings.

AmSouth Bank foreclosed on the property last summer after subcontractors who had not been paid filed liens against the development. Swain then went to bankruptcy court for protection while reorganizing his assets.

He has bought a chain of restaurants in Rhode Island and is working there. He did not answer messages left for him last week.

Stephen R. Pohlit, who was vice president of Rutland Estates, said Friday that he no longer is connected with the development. "I'm not able to give you any meaningful detail regarding the status of that project."

The bankruptcy case was dismissed on the motion of the U.S. Trustee's office and attorney Ginnie Van Kesteren, who represented buyers who had put down deposits on the condominiums.

Van Kesteren said she filed a motion to convert the case to liquidation, but there were no assets.

"There was no cash flow, no assets, no reason for it to remain an active case," Van Kesteren said. She agreed to the dismissal, saying most of her clients had lost interest.

Patrick Tinker in the U.S. Trustee's office in Tampa said dismissal of the bankruptcy claim did not discharge the case. "It's as if the case were never filed," he said last week.

"While the company was not absolved, nothing is really going to be done about it," Van Kesteren said. "Most (of the buyers) have gotten half their deposits back. Most buyers have gone on to other things."

Jane Wolfe, who lives in the neighborhood, said it was a particularly bad time for the stalled development.

"The rest of this neighborhood is progressing. People are adding on and building up. It's great to see what's going on in this neighborhood," Wolfe said.