REAL estateDragul sells Florida property to Phillies for $22.5M

Gary Dragul, a local real estate investor who faces several charges of securities fraud, has sold a shopping mall in Florida to the Philadelphia Phillies for $22.5 million.

Now the question is where exactly that money will go.

The sale was finalized Nov. 10, according to records in a bankruptcy case involving the 13-acre property in Clearwater. The property is a neighbor of a Phillies training facility and is part of the team’s $300 million expansion plans there, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

In Dragul’s eyes, the sale is vindication. Although eight felony counts against him have been dropped, Dragul still faces six other counts of securities fraud. Prosecutors say he lied to real estate investors about returns; he says he’s an innocent, honest businessman.

“The benefit that Gary gets out of this is showing to the world that his business was a legitimate business,” said Gary Shumway, a Dragul attorney who was involved with the Clearwater sale. “He had these real estate assets that were generating lots of income, had lots of equity — it was a legitimate business that was completely destroyed in every way.”

Dragul’s business assets are in the hands of a receiver, Harvey Sender. Dragul has accused Sender and his allies of taking millions of dollars from the receivership estate through legal fees and receiver fees — money meant for real estate investors who lost out. Sender’s records show he and professionals he hired have been paid $3.7 million from the estate.

The Clearwater property is an exception to the receivership. After failing to sell the property in 2020, Sender relinquished control of it to Dragul, court records show. Then Dragul sold it.

“Harvey Sender hasn’t returned one penny to one investor in the over four years that he’s been involved,” Dragul said by phone last week. “With my hands tied behind my back and the state coming after me, I will be able to return millions.”

Dragul anticipates that investors in the Clearwater property will receive more than $5 million after a lender is paid back. He opposes an ongoing attempt by Sender to put $3.7 million from the sale into the receivership estate instead.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Denver will decide how the profits will be split. Because he previously sold his stake in the property, Dragul will not benefit, court records show.

For his part, Sender says all funds destined to go to investors are being held in the receivership estate pending a distribution plan. Distribution “has been delayed by Dragul’s numerous requests for continuance of his criminal and civil matters,” he says.

When asked if investors in the Clearwater property will receive millions of dollars from

the sale, as Dragul says, Sender wrote in an email, “We have no reason to believe that it is true given his history. We believe the funds should be primarily distributed through the receivership estate.”

Dragul is scheduled to go to trial in Arapahoe County District Court in June on the first count of securities fraud. A second trial has not been scheduled for the remaining five counts.

As for the shopping center at 21688 U.S. 19 N. in Clearwater, its future is simple: It likely will be demolished and turned into a parking lot, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“It’s a large piece of property that is contiguous to the footprint of the ballpark and our complex, and really the last one that’s available,” John Timberlake, the Phillies’ director of Florida operations, told the newspaper. “And so when we saw what was going on with it, our ownership thought it would be a smart move to try to acquire it.”