Wilshire Village rubberneckers: Pull on over; you are in for quite a treat! The gift that keeps on giving — the tragicomedy of real estate errors at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy in Montrose — has come through with another rich round of jaw-dropping twists. It’s up to us to recount and gawk.
We’re still combing through documents filed in the recent lawsuit for more goodies. But a reader who’s a few steps ahead of us has dug into them already and found these gems:
The property has been appraised at $26.8 million. Alabama & Dunlavy (“the partnership”) claim that they were jerked around by Wedge [Real Estate Finance, LLC] as follows:
At the instruction of Wedge, the partnership demolished the buildings on the property. They did this in an effort to prepare the site for development and increase its value by “millions of dollars.” Wedge demanded that this be done because Wedge purchased the Amegy $10 million loan, held the $3 million Wedge loan, and wanted to foreclose. Wedge allegedly stated that if the partnership demolished the buildings and increased the value of the property, Wedge would work with the partnership to avoid foreclosure.
So, the partnership – at great expense – “evicted squatters” and demolished the buildings. But, alas, Wedge decided to foreclose on the partnership and also seize $1,000,000 the partnership held in an amegy account that the partnership planned to use to help fund development.
Among the juicy tidbits…
What? There’s more!?
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1. The partnership claims Wedge has met with the city regarding development
2. The partnership has a contract for sale of the property but the purchaser cannot secure funding because Wedge won’t provide an accurate payoff amount.
3. The purchaser has negotiated a lease to build an HEB grocery store on the site.
4. The purchaser is identified as someone named R. H. Abercrombie.
5. [Dilick] states in his affidavit that foreclosure would “ruin my reputation in the community as a real estate developer and would be a “deathblow” to my business of developing properties.
6. Tour 18 Partners executed a commitment letter for a $14,000,000 loan to the partnership, apparently in an effort to show that the partnership can release the liens. Tour 18 also drafted a check for a million dollars on behalf of the partnership and payable to Wedge to reduce the outstanding debt obligation and facilitate the sale.
What does it all mean? What will happen to this prize property?
So it’s either going to be an HEB or a really kickass miniature golf course.
- Wilshire Village coverage [Swamplot]
Photos of Wilshire Village Apartments, 1701 West Alabama (now demolished): Jim Parsons (top) and Swamplot inbox (bottom)
15 Comments
Well it should be pointed out that the city offered a little “incentive” for demolition by condemning Wilshire Village.
Does this surprise anyone? Bill White ran the Wedge Group before becoming mayor. And this just reflects the “double-dealing” way he ran the city.
And people are thinking about voting for him for governor?
The only two candidates in the governor’s race that are worth anything are Friedman and Medina. It would be awesome if they won their respective primaries.
Anyway, this does explain some of the hastiness in demoing the buildings. Wedge Group and White were are the center. I guess it appears Dilick wasn’t the horrible guy in this at all.
No, Dillick is a really nice guy who refers to his elderly tenants as squatters.
The only two candidates in the governor’s race that are worth anything are Friedman and Medina.
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Friedman dropped out of the governor’s race.
As for Dillick being a nice guy, well, if stupid is nice, then perhaps he is.
Crap, that show my lack of interest in this Gov’s race. Didn’t even notice Kinky getting out.
RWB, I don’t think Dilick is a wonderful man in all this matter, but it is coming up that several parts of this was out of his control.
Very interesting. So there is a direct connection between Bill White and Wedge. Wedge and the city work in conjunction to evict the “squatters”. Didn’t White want to do the same with those “pesky” tenants at the Center for the Mentally Retaded.
Didn’t White want to do the same with those “pesky” tenants at the Center for the Mentally Retaded.
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He did. Added to the list of things he did. Including having the taxpayers pay for land under condemnation that his buddy Ed Wulfe was supposed to buy himself and then realized the taxpayers could buy it for him. So many things that all his supporters want everyone to forget. Which not everyone will. Despite the Chronicle in particular publishing only “pro-
White” propaganda. And no doubt once the race for governor begins in earnest, the Chronicle will ban those who dare to remind anyone of the reality of Bill White. They way it did with those who dared to remind anyone of the reality of Annise Parker.
As for Bill White he makes Chuck Rosenthal look like Dudley Do-Right.
Surely if foreclosure would ruin his reputation in the development business Matt Dilick should have continued making his loan payments rather than defaulting.
He already ruined his reputation in the human decency business by being a slumlord.
Eh, what reputation is that Matt?
… but let’s think about kick-ass miniature golf now, shall we!
fact: the place was on the auction block more than once over the years for delinquent taxes. this is a ‘free’ country and you can sue anyone for anything if you want to pay attorney fees. cohen will gripe over this ’till the day he’s dropped into the ground. fact: the owner didn’t keep it maintained. it was a safety hazard one block from a coh firestation. now it’s an empty lot. i wonder how the residents in the neighborhood feel about the prospect of a honkering kroger’s or heb parking lot coming down the pike? so you trade one eyesore for another. (and btw, bill white will make a terrific gov., thank you.)
well, it’s been about a year since all of us were ‘thrown out’ of our cozy eyesore (from the exterior point of view). i say all of the former tenants that are still in town, throw a block party in that beautiful empty lot. picnic, bbq, keg party…
it’d be a great media event. maybe we could even get the King Possums, Dilick & Cohen to join us and even Billy Boy WHITE could show up to kickoff his champagne! oh happy day!
SNAP! city politics snafu!
I’m there as one who enjoyed many a great Wilshire evening, sludger! And your Mrs. Peel window shrine still graces many an avatar.
it was a safety hazard one block from a coh firestation
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There are probably quite a few other “safety hazards” near that firestation. The point is the city only was concerned with this one. And moved with amazing speed to have it condemned. Unlike others that sit there for years. In other words, selective enforcement of ordinance. Same selective enforcement of ordinance we saw with 1717 Bissonet.
Obviously you believe ordinance, like law, should be selectively enforced. When it suits your personal, and obviously pretentious, agenda. To you, obviously, Bill White will make a wonderful governor.