Judge orders auction of vacant Channelside condos

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The fallout from an overbuilt condo market intensified as a bankruptcy judge has ordered the auction of the remaining vacant condos in the Place at Channelside, an insolvent development near the Port of Tampa.

The Oct. 5 auction takes in 171 of 245 condos at the Place, ranging in size from 596-square-foot studios to a mammoth 3,665-square-foot penthouse. The whole portfolio will be sold as one unit with a minimum reserve price of $17.25-million.

Based on the minimum bid requirement, units could sell for $100,000 each, far shy of the several-hundred-thousand-dollar asking price for previously purchased, modest-sized units.

Developer Fida Sirdar of Key Developers Group signed up buyers for two eight-story condo towers in 2005. But by 2007, buyers were suing by the dozens to back out of deals.

The 2.1-acre site comes with ground-floor shop space, a parking garage and other extras.

This probably won't be the last condo-related auction: Projects such as the Towers at Channelside and Trump Tower Tampa also are inching their way through bankruptcy court.

Trump Tower is little more than a lot on the Hillsborough River, but developers expressed fear last month that their multi-million-dollar property may be subject to a fire sale if they don't get a cash-rich investor.

Comments on this article

by Brad	Aug 24, 2008 10:34 AM
If you don't like downtown or Channelside, don't come. I'd prefer you stay in your suburban sprawl in New Tampa or Pasco

by Ed	Aug 24, 2008 10:33 AM
You guys are right! Downtown St. Pete has it all! There are MUCH better protesters (uhuru, anti-war) homeless people and teen riots. I should move over there right away!

by Black Horseman	Aug 24, 2008 10:25 AM
Tear down the slums of Ybor and build a domed stadium in downtown Tampa. Pay for it by enacting a Bush tax that will tax all the war profiteers who are making billions in Iraq. Cheney can throw the 1st ball out then head to prison.

by Samual	Aug 24, 2008 10:03 AM
I bought a gorgeous loft at Victory in Channelside about 4 years ago after it opened. 20' ceilings, nice balcony, etc. I live in NPR, so it was a close "weekend away" place. Man, glad I got out at the top 3 years ago.

by greg	Aug 23, 2008 6:10 PM
A lot of blame is on Pam Irrio & the Idiot commenioners.......

by Raymond the Rays Madscot	Aug 23, 2008 5:58 PM
If u want 2 live in most beautiful downtown in SE US, live in downtown St. Pete. Tampa has nothing on gulf coast side of the bay,& it's never going to change from that, Tampaians dont want to believe it, but it is what it is, stay classy Bay Area!

by JPeterman	Aug 23, 2008 5:54 PM
I'll give you $100k for that penthouse. Oh and I want not condo fees guaranteed for 5 years. Haha!

by Murf	Aug 23, 2008 5:43 PM
Can't feel sorry for developers. They and their political hacks at all levels in this state have devastated so much of what was once a beautiful natural landscape with unmanaged overdevelopment. And the residents are left holding the tax bill.

by Joe	Aug 23, 2008 1:20 PM
So who's left holding the bag on this one. Bet it's not Fida Sidar...

by country gal	Aug 23, 2008 1:18 PM
oooooh....those poor, poor developers. their overpriced and overvalued little apartments (oops..'scuse me, CONDOS) have bit the dust. a moment of silence for them....

by jhauaclaud	Aug 23, 2008 1:13 PM
i;ll take two,,, what a nice location, all of the sports , and shows, and nite trips on the trolley,, and best of all the tourest chiks,,, how impressive to just scoop em up to the room,, almost as good as the beach,,,

by Brian	Aug 23, 2008 11:41 AM
Amen to "Valuesvoter". Greed has become the overall message in our culture--Bush and his cronies +6 years of a Republican Congress have fiscally and morally bankrupted this great nation. The Democrats are no better! We need term limits and no debt!!

by Charlie	Aug 22, 2008 5:27 PM
Trump Tower Tampa would make a good waterside park.

by Zac	Aug 22, 2008 4:48 PM
Channelside is for tourists and getting drunk before hockey games. Lame city with a lame downtown.

by Fred	Aug 22, 2008 3:07 PM
Hooters right across the street!

by John	Aug 22, 2008 10:09 AM
Living in downtown Tampa is much better imo

by fiefel	Aug 21, 2008 9:01 PM
Oh bless their hearts.

by Al	Aug 21, 2008 8:49 PM
Channelside is a once in a blue moon good time. Living there would suck. It's not city living, like NYC or Chicago. It's essentially a ritzy ghetto. I love that suckers threw millions at it.

by Ted	Aug 21, 2008 5:51 PM
Channelside is a overblown industrial park.

by valuesvoter	Aug 21, 2008 2:16 PM
Greed, it's the ruination of the nation. There's plenty more just like this all over the state, and two within three mils of where I live. We can thank St.Joe/Arvida, and the investors, one happens to be a mayor, for the Seven Shores mess.

by Paul	Aug 21, 2008 2:07 PM
I honestly can't believe anyone in their right mind would want to live around the garbage (literally) that surrounds that area. Aren't there oil tanks and chlorine tanks under a mile away? The place is a barren, lifeless concrete mess.