Resort restoration attracts big names

The resurrection of the famed Colony Beach & Tennis Resort on Longboat Key might get a boost from some bona fide star power.

Global tennis legend Nick Bollettieri, for one, says he will informally advise the development team. Anna Maria Island restaurateur Sean Murphy also says he will work with the developers, a group that includes Broomfield, Colo.-based Club Holdings LLC and Windemere-based Miller Group Development.

Bollettieri currently runs the Bradenton-based IMG Bollettieri Tennis Academy, so he says he has no plans to work in an official capacity with the Colony. Still, Bollettieri, with a list of tennis pupils that includes Andre Agassi and Maria Sharapova, says the Colony's decline is disheartening, given it's where he launched his tennis coaching career in 1975.

“If it wasn't for the Colony, I wouldn't be here today,” Bollettieri tells Coffee Talk. “I will do everything in my power to give advice to (help) the Colony regain its status as the number one tennis resort in the world.”

The Colony, an internationally recognized top-tier tennis and vacation destination, was shuttered last year after a lengthy dispute between condo owners and the former management team. Last month the Colony's homeowners' association selected Club Holdings to lead a redevelopment effort. Club Holdings' proposal included a partnership with the Miller Group and Glenn Miller, an original Colony unit owner who knows Bollettieri.

Like Bollettieri, Murphy worked at the Colony in the 1970s. And like Bollettieri, Murphy also says the experience was the most formative of his career, especially when he was mentored by onetime Colony Chairman Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber. Murphy went on to open the Beach Bistro, an award-winning restaurant on Anna Maria. Murphy says he will work for the Colony in a so far non-defined culinary consultant role.