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Wharf Development, Orange Beach faces final foreclosure
15-09-2010
Tagged Under : Beach, Orange Beach, Wharf Development
The Wharf Development in Orange Beach, Alabama has been a fun place for residents and tourists for years. Towering condominiums on the beach have grown up there too, as thousands flocked to wine and dine, take fairground rides or enjoy a concert. Others preferred to spend their days sunning on the beach, or floating down a lazy river.
In a shock to many Orange Beach residents Regions Bank has taken possession of the Wharf Amphitheatre, Wharf Marina and more than 175 mainly undeveloped acres of prime land. After foreclosure, it bought the assets for $18.6 million after nobody else bid at the auction held on the Baldwin County Courthouse steps. Regions Bank previously loaned AIG Baker Shopping Center Properties over $49 million five years ago, to develop the project stages that it now owns. The bid that Region Bank made in the capacity of Oarlock Asset Management One LLC reduces the obligations of AIG Baker by just that amount, leaving the developer of the Wharf Development still deeply obligated. To add further to their woes, JP Morgan Chase Bank loaned $84.2 million towards the Wharf’s commercial properties, while BBVA Compass (which lent $73.1 million) is already advertising 90 brand new condominiums and a 27,000 square foot convention centre for sale.
Quite what Region Bank plans to do with 190 boat slips on the IntraCoastal Waterway, a dock store, a restaurant, 167 acres of land and a 10,200-seat concert venue is unclear after nobody else bid at the auction. Orange Beach, Alabama residents and tenants at the Wharf are equally unequivocal that an investor must save the development. Jobs are at stake, employees fear for their futures – meanwhile the development’s website pressroom page has not added content since winter of 2009.
“There are no immediate changes in terms of day-to-day operations and any decisions will be made after careful consideration, with the interests of all parties, including the local community, in mind,” Regions spokesperson Evelyn Mitchel assures.
According to the bank’s attorney, Stephen Monk, a property management firm will operate the Marina and the Amphitheatre, and the planned Concert by Hank Williams Jr. and Gretchen Wilson will continue on September 25. “To the greatest extent possible Regions wants to keep managing the property, keep working the property and ultimately they’ll end up selling the property, I guess,” the lawyer said.
Manager Terry Days of Shucker’s Oyster Bar, which is now a Regions Bank tenant too, summed up the mood. “We plan to stay open as long as it’s profitable for us,” he said. “But I am concerned about what’s going on around us.”
Find foreclosed properties for sale at .
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