WEST PALM BEACH - The would-be millionaires of Briny Breezes trailer park may have lost their big payday.

The town grabbed headlines in January when the owners of its 488 trailers nestled along the Atlantic Ocean overwhelmingly approved the sale of their community to Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments for more than $510 million.

Nearly every owner would have made more than $1 million, a tidy profit considering some bought their properties a decade ago for less than $40,000.

But Ocean Land now says the contract is kaput after the town's board of directors refused to extend an August deadline for the company to review plans to convert Briny Breezes into a wealthier community.

Logan Pierson, Ocean Land's vice president of acquisitions, said the extension would have allowed the company to confer with neighboring communities.

'We've already spent about $5 million in terms of outright expenses, research, land-use attorneys and engineers, not including our lost opportunity time,' Pierson said Monday. 'Frankly, if you were in our office today, it looks like there's a funeral.'

Palm Beach County officials and area town leaders had raised concerns about such a high-density development coming into the already cluttered coastline about 60 miles north of Miami.

The developers must rely on water and sewer services, along with fire protection, from the neighboring town of Boynton Beach.

'We're not against any kind of development there. We're just in favor of a development that works for the surrounding area and this was just very massive,' said Boynton Beach Mayor Jerry Taylor.

Although the developers don't need approval from the surrounding towns, Ocean Land said the deal would only work if it had the agreement and cooperation of area leaders.

Ocean Land had planned to build about 2,000 multimillion-dollar condo units, a high-end marina and a 300-room luxury hotel. The company later scaled back its plan to about 900 condo units along with the marina and hotel.

Ocean Land made a $500,000 nonrefundable deposit on the deal that would have jumped to $5 million if they didn't get the extension, Pierson said.

The company wasn't ready to make that investment without solid plans in place, he said.

Briny Breezes, a 43-acre down-market relic of old Florida, is one of the last coastal trailer-park communities between Miami and Palm Beach and is surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes and high-rise condos. It is run as a corporation by a board of directors. The residents own shares based on the size and location of their lot. The number of shares - each worth about $32,000 under the developer's offer - would have determined how much residents received in the deal.

The decision to sell divided the town, with some residents saying paradise cannot be bought. However, it was approved by about 80 percent of its shareholders.

Still, the deal may not be dead, Pierson and the town's mayor said.

'I don't think it's dead in the water,' Mayor Roger Bennett said.

The problem now is that many of the town's residents are snowbirds who head north in the summer. A vote on any new contract couldn't take place until most return in the winter, Bennett said.

Briny Breezes resident Peter Kendrigan, 71, said he wasn't disappointed, even though he voted in favor of the sale and stood to make more than $1 million.

'Most people are expecting us to be very upset,' Kendrigan said. 'But we're not upset, because Briny Breezes will sell one of these days, and for now, we're right on the beach; we've got a place to live, so we're happy.'