ISLAMORADA -- Watermark Marina of Snake Creek, home to a partially finished three-story boat rack that has marred motorists' view of the ocean for 20 months, goes up for sale Wednesday, May 27 on the steps of the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West.

The auction begins at 11 a.m. and the property will go to the highest cash bidder.

Northwest Savings Bank began foreclosure proceedings against the Snake Creek marina last September; six months after Watermark had stopped making payments on nearly $6 million in loans. The marina is located at mile maker 85.4, oceanside, on the northern edge of Windley Key.

Company ownership was in default to Northwest Savings for nearly $5 million as of mid April, when the court set the auction date.

Watermark of Snake Creek also faced more than $200,000 in liens and court judgments due to nonpayment of contractors and other vendors, records show.

Watermark, then a subsidiary of California-based Southfork Development Company, purchased the old Snake Creek Marina site for $4.5 million in July 2005. Plans called for a 245-slip boat rack -- later scaled back to 153 slips -- as well as a new ship store. Wet slips were also to be available.

Work began on the boat rack in the summer of 2007, but was halted a few months later with the structure nearly finished. Plagued by financial problems, and delayed by code compliance problems, construction never resumed. The rack, standing 35 feet tall, is clearly visible to motorists driving the Snake Creek drawbridge.

Southfork went out of business in March 2008 and investors took control of the 5.8-acre Snake Creek property shortly thereafter.

The auction is the second in recent months related to a failed Islamorada redevelopment project.

In March the long-abandoned Indigo Bay project, mile marker 81.5, bayside, was put up for auction at the federal bankruptcy court in Miami.

The would-be 25-suite hotel did not generate a selling price deemed acceptable by Indigo Bay's forlorn investors. So they took it over through a $5 million credit purchase, writing down that portion of the nearly $25 million they were owed by the project's original developer, Coconut Grove-based The Berman Group, which is now defunct.

The investors have since put Indigo Bay back on the market.

Watermark of Snake Creek was one of two Islamorada marina projects put into the works by Southfork earlier this decade, during the height of the real estate boom. The other, Watermark Islamorada, located at the old Max's Marine site, mile marker 80.4, bayside, has also been taken over by investors. Plans to redevelop the old Max's site are moving forward.

The two properties are no longer associated with one another, though one-time Southfork principal Brian McCarthy is now CEO of Watermark Islamorada. In addition, Michael Shanley, who used to be vice president of operations at Watermark Marina of Snake Creek, holds the same title with Watermark Islamorada.

rsilk@keysnews.com