It may be right across from the busy St. Pete Times Forum, with a view of the downtown skyline, but the old Newk's Cafe site, at right, is expected to command just a fraction of its peak value. It's the same story for all downtown real estate that goes on the market, brokers say. Staff photo by KATE CALDWELL

TAMPA - Land where Newk's Cafe once stood and where developers dreamed of a 40-story Channel District condo could be sold for a song in a foreclosure sale.

At 2 p.m. today, an acre at the corner of Channelside Drive and Nebraska Avenue - directly across from St. Pete Times Forum - is scheduled to be sold at the Hillsborough County Courthouse.

It is one of the most visible chunks of land downtown. For years, the late Jack Newkirk operated Newk's, a sports bar, but more recently it was home to The Hut, a restaurant that offered occasional "bikini bull riding."

Surrounding the restaurant, Seven One Seven Parking Enterprises operates a pay lot.

As with much of the real estate downtown, this one stirred dreams of a condo tower, but plans fell apart when the real estate market crashed.

According to court documents, Fifth Third Bank loaned $6.6 million in 2007 to WDF Enterprise, securing it with the Channelside property. By April 2009, the owners had defaulted on their loan and Fifth Third demanded immediate payment.

More recently, Fifth Third obtained a judgment against WDF Enterprise for $8.14 million, and the bank is seeking to sell the property to collect on it.

Court and state records don't shed much light on the people behind WDF Enterprise. The only name surfacing there is John Wolf of Brentwood, Tenn., and Wolf said by phone Thursday that he is just a passive investor. He would provide no other names.

SimDag/Robel LLC, the developer behind the defunct Trump Tower Tampa, had envisioned a 40-story condo on the property, calling it The Plaza at Channelside. Prices were to start at $300,000 and run to $4.6 million.

An attorney for WDF Enterprise, Robert Williams of Clearwater, said he couldn't comment on the foreclosure case. He did say the project failed because of the downturn in the economy.

Whether anyone will bid for the property today, and how much they may offer, is anyone's guess. But even prime land in downtown Tampa has nosedived in value in the past three years.

Court records show that an investment group, Forum Partners, offered $3.5 million for the property a year ago, about half what was owed on it. Some investors in Forum Partners may also have been investors in SimDag/Robel, according to state corporation records.

It's not clear what happened to the offer, and a Fifth Third spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday.

Bill Eshenbaugh, a Tampa Bay area land broker, said downtown property may be worth 30 percent to 40 percent of its peak price. Several months ago, a chunk of land in the 600 block of North Franklin Street, where the Maas Bros. department store once stood, sold for $2.7 million. Three years earlier it sold for $11 million.

"All that vacant property is really going to be up for grabs for a while," said Michael English, an urban planner with the WilsonMiller land planning firm. "There's no market to put people in big new buildings."

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.