Chamber of Commerce official says Bianco Sands was "clearly abandoned."

SIESTA KEY -- Some vacationers lost deposits of $1,500 or more when they showed up at an abandoned key property.

The former owners of Bianco Sands on Point of Rocks Road were not answering their phone or attending to the Siesta Key property in early January, said Charlie Valentine, chairwoman of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.

"It was clearly abandoned," Valentine said.

The chamber helped a half-dozen or more vacationers find other places to stay. One family decided to go home, Valentine said.

The Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau is encouraging people to file their complaints with the state. Visitors bureau President Virginia Haley said her office reached a few guests and tried to console them with dinner gift certificates.

The vacationers appear to have been lost in the gap of foreclosure proceedings.

Gordon Hester's U.S. Funding Group started foreclosure on Bianco Sands, a small collection of apartments, in late 2006 and took title in January.

U.S. Funding property manager Debbie Johnson said the former owner refused to share records, so she had no way to notify guests of the change.

Because of a court-imposed waiting period, Johnson said she could not immediately take possession. She couldn't post signs or clean up the apartments.

"We did the best we could," she said.

Johnson said a property manager is on site, and she is honoring reservations.

One guest from Michigan, who declined to give his name, said he called ahead and reached the former manager, Perry Feinberg, who said everything was OK. A maintenance man checked him on Jan. 14, and the new owners were in place by the next day.

"They honored our contract and they let us stay," he said.

At least one other guest told the Siesta Key chamber that Feinberg had reached her and promised return of the deposit, Valentine said.

The number listed for Feinberg at Bianco Sands is disconnected.

The former owner is Boca Grand Railroad LLC, whose principals are William C. Tagland of Sarasota and Steve Hiteman of Lutz.

Tagland could not be reached for comment.

Boca Grand Railroad bought the two parcels that make up the Bianco Sands in January 2006 for $1.85 million. The company immediately took a loan from US Funding Group in Sarasota.

U.S. Funding Group is the commercial loan specialist that foreclosed on Palmetto's Riverside Plaza last year.

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