(Source: The News Herald)
By Will Hobson, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.
Feb. 26--PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- PANAMA CITY -- The former Copa Cabana Extended Stay Hotel on Beck Avenue, closed since 2006, apparently will not reopen anytime soon.
Prosperity Bank completed foreclosure on the property Wednesday. Details on what happened to scuttle redesign plans were not forthcoming Wednesday.
CCH Ventures, LLC bought the Copa Cabana from Western Hostel, LLC for $2.15 million in March 2006, according to Bay County property records, and took out a $1.6 million mortgage from Prosperity.
The Copa Cabana, built in 1960, closed later that summer, and has been dormant since. According to foreclosure court filings, CCH Ventures owes Prosperity Bank $1,642,785. The Bay County property appraiser's Web site lists the Cabana's 2008 market value as $1,366,752.
P r o s p e r i t y b e g a n foreclosure proceedings in Bay County last May. The court ruled in favor of Prosperity on Jan. 8. No one placed a bid on the property at an open auction held Feb. 8, and Prosperity officially took the deed Wednesday.
None of the defendants listed on foreclosure court filings -- CCH, Alan M. O'Neal and AOCO Investments, LLC -- could be reached Wednesday. Limited liability company documents filed with the state show CCH and AOCO as both being based in Destin.
N a n c y W e n g e l , executive director of the St. Andrews Waterfront Project, said Wednesday that a representative of the Cabana's new owners showed up to meetings in 2007 and began talks about redesign plans for the hotel.
"Then obviously whatever problems happened set in, and those plans went by the wayside," Wengel said.
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