Crown Village Farm LLC, a developer for the billion-dollar proposal for the Crown Farm — Gaithersburg's largest planned housing project — filed for bankruptcy.
Developers for the billion-dollar Crown Farm retail and residential project in Gaithersburg filed bankruptcy this month.
KB Home Maryland LLC and Centex Homes Crown LLC, which teamed to form Crown Village Farm LLC, tried selling the 181-acre property near interstates 270 and 370 at Fields Road last summer. Bidders offered barely half the $140 million they paid for the property in 2006.
A 2006 annexation agreement for the property requires a $1 million donation to Gaithersburg in 2010, said City Attorney Lynn Board.
Plans call for a school, roads and a stop for the Corridor Cities Transitway, a planned 14-mile light rail or rapid bus line connecting the Shady Grove Metro station with Clarksburg.
Board said the city's position will be that any buyer of the Crown Farm property must honor the annexation agreement and approved plans for the parcels, she said.
The commercial market is about the take the same dive as the residential market did. 1/3 of all commercial mortgages are under the same ARM policies as the houses.
ReplyDeleteObama better get these banks back to lending again or its going to get real ugly.
$193,370 for a 55 x 100 lot? No streets, utilities, perc test? Plus closing costs? No, thanks, you made a bad deal. Don't ask me for a bailout!
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing. You can blame the banks and the Fed examiners for this bankruptcy. In ordinary times, the developer could pay his interest and hold onto the property until the economy turns around. But here, and everywhere else, Fed bank examiners consider any loan like this that is not producing income yet (ie still in the entitlement phase) as non-performing and therefore the bank has to set 40% of the loan aside as capital. No bank can afford this. Thus forcing the bank to call the loan and try to auction it. It is happening here and you will continue to see businesses go under because of this stand the fed examiners are taking.
ReplyDeleteThe most frightening part of the story is WHO IS BUYING up our land at such bargain bottom prices? Who are the global elites behind the complete destruction of personal wealth and our constitution?
ReplyDeletei lived in gaithersburg from 1981 to 1992. back then, you could buy the rights to say a builder like ryan homes to build your home on their lot, then flip it for easily $50,000.00 with no home yet built. the new owner took over the entire price you had negotiated with ryan. leaving you with like 40,000.00 profit for just shuffling the papers. it was incredible. i bought a townhouse in 1985, and sold it 6 months later for $20,000.00 more than i paid.
ReplyDeletegaithersburg exploded in the eighties. rt. 270 was the "road project that would never end".
i went up ther years ago, just to see what it was like. i couldn't even find the places i lived in when i was there it had changed so much. except the cider barrel on rt. 355 between gaithersburg and germantown, which is i believe now a state historical site.
We aint seen nothing yet.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at today's Daily Times, where the annual list of property tax non-payers is listed. Look at how many companies there are, such as Tucker Homes.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing there are people in high positions with companies like this who DID NOT KNOW what was coming! The collapse of our economy was a fairly well kept secret.
ReplyDelete