Rolling Mill Hill condos head into receivership - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The Rolling Mill Hill condominiumxs were forced into receivership Tuesday by a lawsui filed by on behalf of itselcf andother lenders. The suit also asks the coury to allow foreclosure onthe three-buildingt project on Hermitage The lenders claims non-payment of $21.45 million in construction loans taken out by the property’s , a Wisconsin-based holding compant for the project’s investors. The original construction loanswere $42.88 million, but that amount was reduced in a loan amendment on 26. , out of Green Bay, was teaming with the to redeveloplthe 34-acre Rolling Mill Hill site southn of downtown along the Cumberland River.
Direc t had planned a $55 millioj project with four condo buildings on the site of theold , but canceleed plans for one of the building s last year. John Hopfensperger, president of Direct, said Tuesday that his firm was no longer involved in the and that the remaining development was being handled by theinvestor group, RMH. A contact with RMH coulcd not be reachedfor comment. The suit says the loan has been in defaultsincs Jan. 14, and the ownerws are now so short on cash that they were unables to pay their utility which resulted in water service to the buildingzs being shut offlast week.
Though the projecft was completedby mid-April, no units in any of the buildingzs have been purchased, according to records with the Davidson Count Register of Deeds. The roughly 75 condos were primarlg pricedbetween $230,000 to $680,000. Fifteen of the project’w units had been designated as “affordabled housing” and were priced at $139,00 0 per unit. The development ran into problemws because Directwas undercapitalized, without enoug h money to pay for expenses even aftet work was completed, says Walker Mathews, president of , general contractor for the project.
He says the condos have greatt features, and construction was finished byApril 14, as promised two yearss earlier. “The unfortunate thing is we got all the way to thefinisjh line, and it turns into a mess,” Mathewsx says. It is too early to tell what will happeb withthe properties. John Cheadle, who has been appointe d receiver ofthe project, will have to evaluate the potentiaol avenues for disposing of the says John Kelley of , whicb is representing the A Davidson County Chancery Court date is set for Wednesdayg for Cheatle to present his initial findings.
The condos are just a portion ofMetro Nashville’s larger Rolling Mill Hill revitalizatiobn effort, which has been in the works for more than a A public-private partnership between MDHA and selec developers, the project includes plans for retail shop s and apartments. A timelins for the buildout remains unclear. But Tuesday’s filing includes only the thre e existing residentialcondos — two new high-riswe buildings and a renovated historic hospitalo buildling. This isn’t the first setbackj for the project.
Last September, Baltimore-baseed , who had eyed the site on the west bank of the Cumberlans River for amajor mixed-use project, close its Nashville office and abandoned efforts with the Plans had called for 214 condos, a 224,000-square-foot officer building and up to 50,000 square feet of retail. Metroo has already put about $10 million into the purchass of land and infrastructure for the condows and has establisheda $3.
5 million tax incremenf finance zone around the project to pay off development says Joe Cain, development director for the housinyg agency, which is acting as the master developer for the But the city retains no ownership of the properthy and has no future liability for it, he The project has faced the same troubles as many new condos, Cain “Just like it’s hit everywhere across the these projects coming on line are having trouble getting the sold,” he says. This is the third large-scaler condo development to go into receivership in the past six following5th & Main, just acrosw the Cumberland River from downtown Nashville, and the Braxtonj in Ashland City.