Area brokers intimate with the deal and city planners tell GlobeSt.com that developer Bill Geary's Carlsberg Management Co. couldn't close on a previously contracted deal to buy the shuttered Adventure Landing water park, north of Main Street, for $2.3 million. The transaction with seller Adventure Entertainment Co. of Jacksonville, FL fell through because of funding problems, sources tell GlobeSt.com.

Geary is also negotiating to buy the boardwalk's pier from local owner Theresa Doan for $3 million, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. That deal has been pending since May of this year.

Through Carlsberg and his other company, Boardwalk Convention Hotel Partners Ltd., Geary plans to build two 250-room hotels, an undetermined number of timeshare units, carnival rides, an arcade and about 50,000 sf of retail-restaurant space on the beach side, north of Main Street.

Local taxpayers have voted to use about $12 million of public funds to finance the boardwalk redevelopment. This is the second time in 20 years that Geary is attempting the undertaking, city planners confirm to GlobeSt.com. Financing problems also stalled his first effort. Geary was the only national developer to accept the city's advertised proposal of the project in May.