Court rules against investors in Channelside case

TAMPA — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware has dismissed four adversary complaints to the sale of Channelside Bay Plaza filed by an investor group. Judge Christopher Sontchi dismissed three of the complaints with prejudice, which means they cannot be changed and brought up again.

The case centers around the Tampa Port Authority's agreement to buy Channelside Bay Plaza from the Irish Bank Resolution Corp. for $5.75 million. The Port Tampa Bay already owns the 4.5 acres of land under the 234,520-square-foot Channelside Bay Plaza that it leases to the center's owner.

The investors, Tampa's Liberty Group and Santosh Govindaraju, managing director for Tampa-based real estate private equity firm Convergent Capital Partners LLC, had sued to stop the sale, accusing the port of unfairly sabotaging its bid to buy the property so the port itself could buy it.

Port Tampa Bay's position has been that the investors' attempt to buy the property failed on its own and that since then those investors have worked to hinder any other redevelopment of the property.

The port says in the press release that “...the Court's ruling today is the first step in returning Channelside as a jewel of downtown Tampa.”