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Developer feud leads to local foreclosures
07/02/2010 1:33 PM by John M
A feud between developer Justin French and his partner the Markel Corporation over funds needed to finish a set of larger projects is leading to French purposefully letting the bank foreclose on all of the projects in which he and are Markel partnered. The long list of impacted properties include residential work at 614-620 North 28th Street and 3012-3026 Q Street. [via Richmond BizSense]
French has been playing a shell game for years with historic tax credits. The shady and sketchy house of cards he has built finally crashed down. I feel bad that other involved parties, like contractors, have to suffer, while he will likely escape any real responsibility, although I would not be surprised if at some point the government decides to take a closer look at the tax credit process, which is rife with fraud.
What a bummer, I was hoping to see construction start on the new attached homes on 28th Street. I know a lot of behind the scenes work has already been put into the 28th Street project. Hopefully he can find someone to jumpstart this and many more of his other projects.
So what does this mean for 28th St. in light of the recently passed rezoning of the “t-zone”?
would be a shame if they came after HIS house next….
http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/propertysearch/Detail.aspx?pin=W0200107001
Times Dispatch has an article about this, too.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/2010/jul/03/fren03-ar-263372/
Given the size of the vacant land and how they are contiguous, it means that you could have a 48 foot tall mixed use building with several apartments and a bar/restaurant or convenience store on M and 28th St.
I would like to add that at a recent meeting held by Newbille at the EDI, the listing agent for French’s properties assured the community that the project mentioned above (attached homes) would absolutely happen. When confronted with the question of French backing off this project and selling, the agent kept hedging and saying that wouldn’t happen.
Hmmm. Four days after the zoning ordinance passes, French is dumping the property and walking. That R-63 land should fetch a good price!
Folks 614,616, 618 and 620 N 28th are owned by one of French’ LLCs and have already renovated into 1 bedroom 1.5 bath rowhouses. These are the buildings that are slated for foreclosure NOT the vacant parcels across the street! The 4 vacant parcels at 615, 617, 625, 627 N 28th are still slated for single family development and are not owned by French. That builder still plans on moving forward with the 2 sets of single family attached homes the lots are not for sale the houses are. So long story short nothing has changed with the 600 Block of N 28th St concept…Single Family Development…Not MultiFamily or Commercial.
Matt Jarreau
605 N 28th
Matt:
Thanks for the clarification. I certainly hope that the attached homes get built, but given the almost 3 years since that project was slated to happen and the difficulties in the market right now, I wonder if you’re client might sell his valuable R-63 land and move on. Makes sense.
New, single family homes are in demand on our block. Three new homes have been built in the past year and a half, so I hope that trend continues for your client.
The renovated apartments that are in foreclosure aren’t all rented, I believe, and the rents have been lowered by at least $200 per unit. Granted, the apartments are small and have no outdoor access, but it does make me wonder about the demand for apartments in our area.
Further evidence of this is that it appears that the 5 unit apartment building slated to be built at 504-510 N. 28th Street has been dumped. The parcels are back on the market. Given that this land is now R-8, it is unlikely that any multi-unit project will happen at this location.