Naples resident holding up sale of Naples Beach Hotel is no stranger to legal battles

• In late May, Gregory Myers' last-minute lawsuit filed in Collier Circuit Court stopped the looming sale of the 125-acre property in its tracks.
• In the suit, Myers, a close neighbor, questions the right of the proposed buyers — the Athens Group — to pursue their ambitious plans without his input or approval.
• This much is known: He's no stranger to the court system, or arguing his own legal case, and he's faced financial woes for years.

Naples resident Gregory Myers has thrust himself into the spotlight with a legal challenge involving the long-anticipated redevelopment of the landmark Naples Beach Hotel.

In late May, his last-minute lawsuit filed in Collier Circuit Court stopped the looming sale of the 125-acre property in its tracks.

In the suit, Myers, a close neighbor, questions the right of the proposed buyers — the Athens Group — to pursue their ambitious plans without his input or approval.

Previously, subscribers:Naples Beach Club project advances

Developer offers compromise to keep Naples Beach Hotel's tennis center open

Related:HB's restaurant expansion at Naples Beach Hotel survives appeal

Based on publicly recorded plats and easements, he asserts that he has an interest in the to-be-sold land, although he doesn't technically own any of it. 

Myers' single-handed strategic maneuver has put him in the public eye, sparking curiosity about his background, especially among city residents and business leaders who support the project.

Naples hotelier, developer and entrepreneur Phil McCabe said: "When I witness characters such as Mr. Myers acting as he has with litigation that has no merit, I ask just what has this person done in a positive way for our community. Of course, I know the answer. Then I would ask just what has happened to a community that was so united for our common good. The chaos of our present politics can only bring failure to a community."

Asked for an interview, Myers, who represents himself in the civil action, declined. 

This much is known: He's no stranger to the court system, or arguing his own legal case, and he's faced financial woes for years.

Since 2018, court records show he's filed for bankruptcy three times in three states — Florida, Delaware and Maryland. Two of the cases ended in dismissal.

The latest case, a Chapter 13, is still pending in Florida's Middle District in Fort Myers, but appears to be winding down.  

Chapter 13 allows debtors with regular income to develop a plan to repay creditors within three to five years. It's also known as Wage Earner’s Bankruptcy.

According to court filings, Myers' debts are primarily personal, family or household related.

He estimates his debts at about $28,000 and his assets at nearly $12.8 million. His most valuable assets are real estate holdings, including his home on Gulf Shore Boulevard — the basis for his legal fight over the Naples Beach Hotel redevelopment project.

In his filing, Myers puts the value of his Naples home at $6 million. Collier County property records show a market value of about $2.6 million. 

Monthly, Myers, 61, states he earns $8,500 in income, but his expenses total nearly $8,900.

He describes himself as unemployed, with his monthly income derived from trustee/consulting fees, a disability settlement and marital savings.

Myers has nearly 40 unsecured creditors, including multiple banks and lenders, various attorneys, a country club and a private school.

Plan to get out of bankruptcy

In May, federal Bankruptcy Judge Caryl Delano, who's handling the case, continued an initial confirmation hearing on Myers' reorganization plan to Aug. 26.

Along the way, the plan has faced some opposition, including objections by the court-appointed U.S. trustee administering the case.

At one point, the trustee wrote in a court filing that it didn't appear Myers had dedicated "all disposable income" to the reorganization plan, as required. The trustee pointed to two "luxury items" Myers continued to fund: private school tuition ($500 a month) and property in Maryland ($2,289 a month).

Judge Delano has rejected several motions to dismiss the case, coming from the trustee, as well as several of Myers' creditors.

Court records show the suit Myers brought over the Naples Beach Hotel property isn't his first legal fight involving a large development.

He's filed multiple suits against the developers of the WaterColor community, also known as the Villages at Seagrove, located in northwest Florida, in an attempt to keep them from making changes to open and natural areas.

He purchased property in the community in 2002, but court records show in 2017 he lost it to foreclosure.

His claims in that lawsuit included breach of contract, negligence and slander of title.

Earlier this month, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Krier dismissed the suit after Myers failed to pay the transfer fee required to move the case to Walton County. She ordered the transfer, based on the property's location in that county, finding Collier an "improper" venue to resolve the legal challenge.

The judge's order to toss the case in Collier came amid an appeal Myers filed with the Second District over Krier's decision in March to grant an emergency motion by The St. Joe Co. and WaterColor Development to dismiss his filing of a lis pendens.

A lis pendens, which translates to "pending lawsuit," puts others on notice that there's a dispute, or competing claims, concerning a property. These legal filings have often been used to dissuade buyers or prevent a sale, by putting a cloud on the title until a suit is resolved.

The community's developers described the lis pendens as wrongful because Myers didn't have an interest or actual ownership in the property — and harmful to them, as well as to current and prospective homeowners.  

According to court records, Myers' appeal is still pending, leaving that property rights fight unresolved.

By the way:Residential, commercial projects to follow this summer in SWFL

For subscribers:As Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club closes, former golf pros reminisce about the historic course

Familiar legal claims

The challenge over the future of the Naples Beach Hotel property also stemmed from Myers' opposition to proposed refinements to recreational and open spaces — and his lawsuit includes some of the same legal claims as the ones he brought over changes at Villages at Seagrove.

The Athens Group plans to raze the beach hotel and build a five-star 220-room resort with "best-in-class" residential condos along both sides of Gulf Shore Boulevard North. The redevelopment project includes changes to the golf course and other recreational amenities, including the well-loved tennis center.

The developer has confirmed it has a letter of intent for the world-renowned Four Seasons brand to operate the five-star resort that will replace the existing Naples Beach Hotel.

The Athens Group has put the purchase of the expansive Naples property on hold, as it works to resolve the dispute with Myers as quickly as possible. That doesn't sit well with project supporters, such as McCabe.

The Athens Group pauses talks on land trust involvement to preserve Naples Beach Hotel golf course

In addition to his bankruptcy filings and property rights challenges, Myers has been involved in legal wrangling with lenders over his home on Gulf Shore Boulevard for years.

Lenders filed to foreclose on the property in 2009, claiming he and his wife Barbara Kelly defaulted on their loan. The court awarded U.S. Bank a final judgment of foreclosure in 2015, totaling more than $2.75 million.

In court documents, Myers has accused the bank of breaking its promises in a post-judgment agreement, saying it has attempted to move forward with a foreclosure sale, despite receiving $70,000 toward the new contract.

The date for a foreclosure sale has been postponed and reset numerous times by the court, due to Myers' legal challenges and bankruptcy filings. 

The lenders are currently seeking court approval for a new sale date.

As for the Naples Beach Hotel suit, The Athens Group and the Watkins family, who continue to own the property, don't want to talk about it publicly. They declined to comment for this story.

In an earlier statement, Kim Richards, The Athens Group's CEO, confirmed the sale of the resort property didn't go through because of Myers' last-minute lawsuit and lis pendens.

At the time, he said: "We look forward to resolving this matter as soon as possible."

A few weeks ago, the Watkins family and The Athens Group, through their representative companies, filed emergency motions to dismiss Myers' legal challenges, describing them as fictitious, false and fallacious. 

The Watkins family has owned the resort property for decades, but wants to move on.

Facing "substantial losses and damages"

In a court filing, Michael Watkins, president of Naples Golf and Beach Club Inc., said not only have Myers' actions interfered with the anticipated sale of the property, but caused "substantial losses and damages" to the company and its employees. 

"Losses will increase in magnitude with each passing day," he said.

The Naples Beach Hotel and its related operations, including the golf course, closed on May 24, in anticipation of finalizing a long-planned sale on May 28. 

"We thus have no income and none of the substantial funds representing the purchase price," Watkins said. "This transaction is one of the largest real estate transactions in Naples history." 

The family, he said, has incurred unexpected and immense costs to protect its assets, including providing security, air conditioning, grounds maintenance and insurance for the hotel and other improved property that the buyers plan to swiftly demolish.

Alex Iskenderian, a managing director for the new Naples Beach Club development, said in a court filing that based on Myers' legal actions, the title company refused to issue a clean owner's policy, a condition of the sale, causing the closing to fail.

Purchasers, he said, have also incurred losses and damages after securing a "multi-hundred million" loan for the acquisition property, with substantial daily interest costs. 

Demolition of the existing hotel has been delayed and the contractors hired to do the work are "unlikely to be immediately available should a new closing be scheduled," Iskenderian said.

The forced hold on demolition will lead to construction delays for the new hotel.

"With rapidly rising construction costs for labor and materials, the uncertainty concerning when construction of the new hotel will be able to commence is wreaking havoc on our ability to accurately forecast construction schedules and costs and enter into a guaranteed maximum price construction contract," Iskenderian said. 

Additionally, Myers' lis pendens, he said, has interfered with the buyers' ability to get construction financing on "attractive terms," as well as with the marketing and sale of the multimillion-dollar condominiums that will be part of the redevelopment — generating unnecessary questions and concerns among prospective buyers. 

Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie has denied Myers' motions to disqualify her and the defendants' multiple attorneys from their involvement in the case, due to alleged conflicts of interest, and has rejected his attempts to "stay," or put a temporary hold on, the litigation, pending the outcome of his Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The judge has yet to rule on the emergency motions to dismiss filed by the buyers and sellers. 

In opposing the motion to dismiss filed by the Watkins family, Myers describes their claims as "meritless," saying there's no reason to give the defendants a "free pass" for any reason, including the size of the proposed transaction.

"Respectfully," he said, 'too big to fail' is not a legitimate basis to dismiss plaintiff's complaint."

Decisions on the motions to dismiss are expected soon.

The next court hearing is scheduled for July 23.

Despite the legal hurdles, McCabe said he's confident the redevelopment project will get built, creating a "magnificent, unimaginable five-star, five-diamond hotel coupled with an unprecedented residential component, all being incredibly positive, and accretive to our remarkable town, and lifestyle.”

"It will be by far the most positive, the most significant project ever to come into the city, equal in every respect to the Ritz Carlton in the county," he said.