TAMPA - The owner of Channelside Bay Plaza has discussed selling the retail, restaurant, and entertainment complex, but no deal appears imminent.

Joel Suskin, chief financial officer of the private real estate investment firm that holds $4 billion of property, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., said offers for property Ashkenazy owns 'happen all the time.'

The company owns a number of high-profile retail outlets including Barney's in Manhattan and Union Station in Washington. Ashkenazy obtained the Channelside complex in 2005 from Orix Real Estate Equities for an undisclosed sum. The company leases the Channelside land from the Tampa Port Authority.

A commercial broker said his firm is one of two that have been working for Ashkenazy for about a year to interest prospective buyers in the 4.5 acre complex near downtown Tampa.

'We have had some preliminary meetings with various capital sources, but no financials have been delivered,' said Jim Michalak, manager partner of Tampa-based Plaza Advisors.

In recent months the complex, which is operated by a company Ashkenazy formed called Channelside Bay Mall LLC, has been the source of contention about whether some new tenants have followed the city and county's vision of a family-oriented retail, restaurant and entertainment venue.

Those issues came to public light last month at port authority meeting.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who serves as a port authority commissioner, and some Channelside tenants questioned the operating company's oversight after reports of public rowdiness outside venues that serve alcohol.

On Tuesday, Iorio said conditions at the complex seem to have improved.

Channelside Bay Mall's Tampa-based attorney told the port authority in a letter dated June 4 that it would comply with the port's request not to lease any more first floor space to bars.

The letter from Jaime Austrich also said the landlord asked the owner of two Channelside nightclubs, McGraw's and Slingshots, to cease an Internet marketing promotion that offers patrons 'Free shots all night long Friday and Saturday!' The promotion has been dropped, Austrich said. The lawyer also said in the letter that Channelside is moving to hire off-duty Tampa police officers to beef up security on Fridays and Saturdays.

However, Guy Revelle, an investor in four other businesses at Channelside - Splitsville, Stump's Supper Club, Tinatapa's and Howl at the Moon - said at Tuesday's port meeting that business at the complex remained fragile and patrons' perceptions of the atmosphere there remain critical to its future success.

'We don't want to see a tipping point' in business, Revelle said.

V. Stephen Cohen, Revelle's Tampa-based attorney, said in a letter to the port authority Monday that his client wants to know what the authority intends to do if a new tenant planned at the complex, Wet Willie's, opens as a bar.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 and tjackovics@tampatrib.com.