Judge denies sale of two sections of Legacy Building
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A judge denied the sale of two parts of the Legacy Building on Monday and agreed that the parking situation at the luxury condo building is a mess.
Legacy National Bank is set to foreclose on the property on Thursday. The foreclosure includes 29 of the 39 residential condos and about 10, 000 square feet in retail and restaurant space.
The foreclosure does not include the eight residential units that have been sold, including one unit sold on Aug. 8 with the permission of the court. The Legacy Building at 401 Watson St. secures two loans totaling more than $ 18 million.
An owner of the property and the bank disagreed on allowing the sale of about 5, 500 square feet of restaurant space for $ 700, 000 to Dario Amini and Boyce Ann Billingsley.
Neither opposed the sale of a condo unit for about $ 250 per square foot, but the lack of adequate parking apparently prevented the sale.
Wayne Swofford, the court appointed receiver for this property, presented the contracts for the court to consider without recommendation. Judge William Storey, 4 th Judicial Circuit, mentioned the approaching foreclosure when he denied motions to allow the sales but did not explicitly state why he nixed the sales.
Springdale developer Brandon Barber testified that the sale of the restaurant space would hinder the prospects of getting the most money for the rest of the building at the foreclosure sale. Barber has an interest in Lynnkohn LLC, the owner of the property being foreclosed.
Barber said the proposed sale price is too low. The restaurant space is worth “ upwards of $ 1 million, ” he said.
Marshall Ney, the attorney for Legacy Bank, said the bank is willing to accept the $ 700, 000 offer for the restaurant space because the building needs the visibility and the foot traffic.
“ Having (the restaurant space ) filled is very important, ” Ney said.
The buyer for the residential unit said that the deal hinges on getting two parking spaces, instead of one. The bank opposes the condo sale unless it includes only one parking spot, Ney said.
Louis Etoch, an attorney from West Helena, said he wants to buy the condo so he can have somewhere to stay when he comes to ball games. He has a daughter attending the University of Arkansas this fall, he said. Etoch said that Vaughn Knight, Barber’s attorney, is his brother-in-law.
The Legacy Building has a total of 50 parking spaces, including 11 for current residents, six for the restaurant and two for handicapped people. Only 31 parking spots are available for the remaining 29 residential units, Ney said.
The lack of adequate parking is not the only problem, the receiver explained.
Swofford testified that parking area is considered one unit and individual parking spaces cannot be properly conveyed in a sale. He’s not sure how to fix the problem.
“ It’s a defect in the way the condos were structured in the first place, ” Swofford said.
The recent unit that sold for $ 320, 750 to AAA Enterprises LLC did not include a parking space, but Swofford testified that a real estate agent tricked him into signing a document to include a parking spot in a recent sale of a condo on Aug. 8.
The address shown for AAA Enterprises in closing documents is Washington County property owned by Gary Dean and Janet Anderson.
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