The HBJ’s Allison Wollam reports that the Westgate Houston Preview Gallery, a large timeshare sales center in the JPMorgan Chase bank building on Richmond at Sage, has closed:

The gallery, located at 5177 Richmond Ave., offered a full-size model with a living room and kitchen styled after Central Florida Investments’ timeshare properties.

The Houston location, which opened in 2004, was the first offsite sales center for Orlando-based Central Florida Investments. The company owns Westgate Resorts, which operated the preview gallery.

Almost 3 weeks ago, CFI founder and CEO David Siegel told the Orlando Sentinel that financial troubles had recently begun at the company — with the suddenness of “a heart attack.”

Until that time, Siegel apparently thought he was doing pretty well.

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Earlier this year, Siegel was ordered by a Florida court to pay more than $5 million in damages to a former employee who had accused him of sexually harassing her. The longtime employee, who worked in one of Siegel’s spas, claimed the timeshare tycoon had offered her $1 million to have sex with her.

Siegel was disappointed in the verdict — and especially the makeup of the jury, which found him guilty of battery.

“Those people were not my peers,” the multi-millionaire told a reporter for Orlando TV station WESH. “I mean, they should have had Bill Gates here if they want to have a jury of my peers.”

• Timeshare company closes Houston office, lays off 106 [Houston Business Journal]
• Siegel Found Guilty In $5 Million Lawsuit [WESH Orlando]
• Westgate Resorts to lay off hundreds of workers [Orlando Sentinel]
• Resort Destinations [Westgate Resorts]

Photo of JPMorgan Chase bank building at 5177 Richmond Dr.: CityWideOfficeSpace.com