Judge orders property around old Weeks Fish Camp sold

The property around the old Weeks Fish Camp was ordered sold this week to pay a defaulted mortgage, leaving the future of the historic fish camp that’s become one of the choicest properties in Southwest Florida up in the air.

Michele Pessin, partner in the 131 Group that owns the property, said she has potential buyers lining up. She and partner Thomas Gilhooley, calling themselves “environmental developers,” had planned a project they hoped would end with the marina remaining public. That possibility dimmed slightly this week.

The 131 Group bought the Weeks property — 23 acres that includes a manmade inlet and marina — in 2003. Many of pioneer Draine and Mamie Weeks’ eight children and numerous grandchildren still live on the land and saw them as saviors.

None of the Weeks family members could be contacted for comment.

Though county officials say they love the idea of keeping the marina open to the public, Pessin and Gilhooley have been unable to get the development changes they need approved to develop. Gilhooley says the county manatee protection plan has made marina work difficult, and an effort to transfer development density from other sensitive land they own nearby has not born fruit.

Attorney Amber Vojak represented Mamie Weeks before the matriarch’s death, and helped resolve the estate after. She said there were developers expressing interest even then.

“There was some negotiation. There were several, but no one wanted to pay what they were asking. At the time they all wanted to do it contingent on the development order,” she said.

First Integrity Bank of Minnesota filed suit in June 2005 when payments on the mortgage was $8.7 million, including interest. In December, a private investor stepped in stopping a foreclosure sale virtually on the courthouse steps. On Monday, Judge William McIver said the 131 Group has had enough time and ordered a sale.

Marc Shapiro, attorney for the 131 Group, tried to argue that the interest arrangement in the loan was excessive, but McIver said the defense came too late.

Shapiro said he’s meeting with Pessin, who’s been talking with potential buyers.

“We’re really just trying to buy time,” he said.

Gilhooley said there is a contract for a sale. Other deals have fallen apart, he said, but a “local tri-county” developer now has a deal.

Gilhooley said the marina could yet remain public.

“The conveyance with our idea of a public marina is still very much a possibility,” he said.

If that deal doesn’t work, Lee County itself might be interested in a purchase. Commissioner Ray Judah said that’s one way to make sure the marina stays open.

“It’s certainly one such option, and I think it’s something the board should seriously consider.”

Judah said he plans to bring up the concept with county staffers within the next few days.

The judge gave Pessin and Gilhooley 60 days to settle the debt. They paid just under $8 million for the land two years ago. In the time since, land prices in the area have skyrocketed.

Gilhooley would not say who the current contract is with or reveal the price.