Emerald Shores owners lose big; ambitious redevelopment plan ends in land auction | al.com

Emerald Shores owners lose big; ambitious redevelopment plan ends in land auction | al.com: "GULF SHORES, Ala. -- In the fall of 2006, a Huntsville-based developer, having already sunk some $20 million into a plan to replace a complex of storm-damaged condos, realized that building the $60 million high-rise just wasn't going to work.

So he told the people who had signed over their Emerald Shores condos to his company that they had three choices:

They could come together to pay off the project's $8.6 million debt and get their land back. They could sell the property and share in any profits. Or they could let the developer's lender foreclose."