Serenata Beach Club is scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction at noon Thursday, Sept. 12. The 17,956-square-foot property and parking lot, located at 3175 S. Ponte Vedra Blvd., South Ponte Vedra Beach, has been the subject of several reports in the media concerning the owners’ struggles to pay back loans.
The auction is the result of a failure to accomplish that.
DLP Lending Fund of Delaware with a branch at 405 Golfway West Drive, Suite 300, St. Augustine, filed suit against owners Molly Ann Butler and Jeffrey Byron Butler, as well as Bernoulli Growth Capital, on July 6, 2023, claiming that Serenata Beach Club executed a promissory note on April 20, 2022, in the amount of $8,586,000 and failed to pay all amounts that were due by May 1, 2023.
On July 18, 2024, Judge Howard Maltz of the Circuit Court of the 7th Judicial District ruled that the Serenata Beach Club owed DLP a total of $11,631,516, which included the principal, interest and various legal fees. Interest would continue to accrue after that date.
The foreclosure comes in the wake of reports of temporary shutdowns in 2023 and January 2024. In February 2024, the club announced its reopening after a period of renovation.
The property will be sold online to the highest and best bidder for cash at saintjohns.realforeclose.com.
The St. Johns County Property Appraiser’s Office lists the property’s just (market) value at $4,496,302. The beach club was built in 2001.