BRADENTON — A credit union already is marketing Bradenton Preparatory Academy’s campus to potential buyers, although a late court filing has delayed it from taking possession of the site.
Several potential buyers have contacted GTE Federal Credit Union about the 11-acre campus at 7900 40th Ave. W., an official said Tuesday — the first day the credit union could take ownership of the property it foreclosed on.
But the title transfer didn’t happen, as a tennis academy that leases the school’s courts filed a motion late Monday seeking to delay it, court records show.
United Tennis Academy LLC said it has spent more than $500,000 building and maintaining the courts on 3.1 acres it leases from The Children’s Place Inc., the school’s owner. United Tennis asked that the transfer be delayed until a court hearing is held or that the courts be excluded from any transfer.
No court date on the request has been set. Charles Sniffen, the tennis academy’s attorney, did not return a telephone message left with his office Tuesday.
Doug Richardson, GTE’s senior vice president of marketing, said the lease was in violation of the school’s mortgage with GTE.
Despite not yet having possession of the campus, GTE is “actively marketing” it, he said.
“The amount of publicity that has followed the school has generated its own level of interest,” Richardson said.
He and other GTE officials declined to answer follow-up questions, including the asking price and whether the school would be allowed to continue operating on the site until it is sold.
School officials and their attorney did not return telephone messages Tuesday.
A judge ordered the school site sold to satisfy a $3.68 million mortgage foreclosure judgment that GTE won against Children’s Place in April. A second lender also has a nearly $1.92 million foreclosure judgment against the school.
The private school also has had other financial problems, including more than $1.1 million in unpaid federal taxes; not paying its 2009 property tax bill; lawsuits from creditors; vehicle repossessions for non-payment; and lawsuit threats by teachers who say they have not been paid in months.
