BayWalk Belongs To The Bank Now

Wells Fargo Bank took back the BayWalk shopping center Friday morning as the only bidder at a foreclosure sale of the St. Petersburg property.

The bank won the property with an opening bid of $100 at the Pinellas County Courthouse in downtown St. Petersburg. Any potential bidder also would have assumed the balance on the property's mortgage, which was about $14.5 million when BayWalk went into foreclosure proceedings.

The bank should take title to BayWalk within about 10 days, said Hunter Swearingen, of Ciminelli Real Estate Services of Florida, which has been overseeing BayWalk as the court-appointed receiver.

Wells Fargo's intentions for BayWalk weren't clear Friday. An attorney for Wells Fargo, Les Joughin, referred questions to the bank, which did not return the Tribune's requests for comment. However, it is likely the bank will try to sell the property to investors or real estate firms that buy distressed properties.

One such company, M&J Wilkow of Chicago, is interested in the property but held off on making a bid Friday. David Harvey, a partner at M&J Wilkow, said no one bid on BayWalk because foreclosure sales typically are "as is" transactions and buyers don't enjoy the same protections they have when negotiating to buy something privately.

Also, he thinks BayWalk is worth less than the $14.5 million still owed on the property, he said. Harvey may make an offer on BayWalk, he said. M&J Wilkow already owns Centro Ybor in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood.

For now, BayWalk continues operating regardless of who owns it. In recent weeks, a real estate firm called Equity has been trying to fill BayWalk's vacancies. Ciminelli has placed a general manager on the property to help improve its appearance and its relations with tenants.

One longtime tenant, Hurricane Pass Outfitters owner Bruce Rabon, said he already has noticed that the center is being maintained better and that there is better communication between the tenants and BayWalk's management.

BayWalk was developed in 2000 by the Sembler Co., a prominent retail developer, and Pinellas County developer Fred Bullard for about $40 million. Sembler bowed out of the project in 2008 when it sold its 50-percent stake to one of Bullard's companies, STP Redevelopment, for an undisclosed sum.

Bullard said he wanted to rework his mortgage on BayWalk but that Wells Fargo refused, so he allowed the property to enter foreclosure proceedings late last year.