A judge in Alachua county issued a final foreclosure judgment against the owner on December 21. He has also ordered a public sale of the property for early 2024.
Circuit Judge Donna M. Kleim’s ruling came after Blue Water Real Estate Holding Inc. (owned by Joseph Hernandez) failed to sell its club at the last minute.
According to court records, Blue Water averted an initial foreclosure judgement on December 14 by presenting a contract for the sale of the club to Lee Kerr from Ocala for $3 million. Closing was set for December 20. The reason for the failure of the sale is unclear. The Sun reached out to the broker and closing agent last week, but they declined to comment.
The foreclosure judgment indicates a total lien amounting to about $2 million for the 294 acres of property located at 7300 SW 35th Way. Total includes $411,000 of unpaid default interest from September 2022 to December 2023 and $261,000 for plaintiff MK3C LLC attorney fees.
According to the court order, if the total amount including interest is not paid by Feb. 6, a public auction of the property will take place.
Blue Water is also responsible for paying more than $50000 to the South Florida law firm Shutts & Bowen. The firm withdrew due to non-payment of legal services between August 2022 – September 2023.
Blue Water failed to comply with a court order imposed by the judge after the law firm decided to withdraw from this case. In previous case law, corporations were not allowed to represent themselves.
Blue Water’s failure in obtaining legal counsel resulted in the first planned foreclosure judgement earlier this month.
Gainesville Country Club will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in February. (File photo: Gainesville Sun/USA Today Network)
The first foreclosure lawsuit was filed by Gainesville’s law firm Siegel Hughes Ross & Collins in September 2022 on behalf of MK3C. This was about two months after MK3C’s golf club closed for maintenance, allegedly, in July that year.
Gainesville Regional Utilities cut off the course’s power due to a bill that was not paid of almost $39,000. The Alachua County Tax Collector’s Office also posted a notice of impending levy or seizure.
The lawsuit argued that due to poor maintenance over a period of more than 30 consecutive days and because the water and power were turned off, there could be damage to the property, such as mold growing in the clubhouse and algae in the swimming pool. It also claimed that the roof of the tennis building collapsed and the golf course deteriorated due to a lack of water.
Alachua County records indicate that Blue Water bought the club for $1.5M in December 2018.
