Miami investor buys St. Pete YMCA after litigation

BUYER: NE Apartments Associates Inc. (president: Nicholas Ekonomou), Miami
SELLER: VPC 3 II LLP
PROPERTY: 116 Fifth St. S., St. Petersburg
PRICE: $1.4 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.05 million, August 2004
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Sole Law PLLC, St. Petersburg

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Nick Ekonomou of Miami purchased the 51,512-square-foot historic YMCA of St. Petersburg building for $1.4 million.

The price equated to $27 per square foot.

The 54-year-old Mediterranean Revival-style building occupies a 0.37-acre site. It is listed in the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places.

Ekonomou has publicly said he plans to redevelop the four-story building into hotel or rental apartment units with additional commercial space.

The sale of the YMCA has been tied up for more than two years in a previous purchase contract and litigation with the prior potential buyer.

Music promoter Thomas Nestor put the property under contract in September 2012 for $1.2 million to be paid in installments. He planned to create a Music Mansion, with event space, a cafe, area for music classes and apartments or hotel rooms.

After delays in closing, Nestor and the sellers agreed in a legal settlement on a final deadline for all the payments to be made. But issues with the final payment ended up in state court. Attorneys Camille Iurillo and Sabrina Beavens of the Iurillo Law Group represented the seller.

“The court found he breached the contract in two ways,” Iurillo says. “We did discovery and found that Mr. Nestor attempted to assign the contract to an unrelated entity, which was not allowed under the sales contract. Second, Mr. Nestor or his related assignee failed to pay the full amount by 5 p.m. on the deadline. The amount they tendered to my client was short by about $72,000.”

The sellers, VPC 3 II LLP, a group led by Phil Powell, returned the final payment amount, according to Iurillo, but expect to keep the amount paid as nonrefundable extension statements during the process.