SAN ANTONIO - The developers of long-struggling Bella Verde have been named in the first of what could be several foreclosure filings.

The Bella Verde Golf Community Development District filed the foreclosure this month. The district was one of three - along with the Bella Verde Lake and Bella Verde East CDDs - created to lay the groundwork for the planned Bella Verde development, in northeast Pasco County, by selling public bonds to be repaid by homeowners.

Those bonds remain unpaid because the developers have been unable to get traction with the project.

The Bella Verde Golf filing says Bella Verde owes the CDD nearly $10.6 million in unpaid bonds.

Neither the Bella Verde Lake Community Development District nor the Bella Verde East CDD has filed a default notice against the developers, but both are running in the red, according to the most recent audits filed with Pasco County.

As developments unravel across the Tampa Bay area, the Bella Verde Golf filing echoes last year's foreclosure by the Riverwood Estates CDD against its developer, Doug Weiland. In both cases, the developments failed to produce any houses to repay the borrowed money.

The Weiland development, south of Zephyrhills, is now in bankruptcy.

All three Bella Verde CDDs are chaired by Tom Dempsey, owner and developer of Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel. Dempsey and his DAD Properties LLC were one of five groups invested in Bella Verde. Dempsey's job was to turn Bella Verde into a golf resort outshining Saddlebrook.

The CDDs' boards also include Art Woodworth, who sits on the Pasco County Planning Commission. Woodworth represents Bella Verde's lead developer, California-based New Cities.

Woodworth declined to comment on the foreclosure Wednesday.

Even before the housing market crashed, development moved in fits and starts at the sprawling property, formerly known as Cannon Ranch, on State Road 52 just east of Interstate 75.

Two sales buildings went up in 2005, only to be demolished years later without opening their doors. At one point, earthmovers cleared much of the land, which reverted back to weeds after work stopped.

Several unfinished concrete structures with rusting steel bars sticking out of them now sit on the property, and barbed wire barricades the driveway off S.R. 52.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 731-8168.