3 condo complexes in foreclosure have new owner
Posted By | Posted On Aug 25, 2011
Florida developer buys 28th Row, Garrison at Graham and The Vyne.
By Eleanor Kennedy | Thursday, August 25, 2011 | www.charlotteobserver.com
A Florida developer has purchased three foreclosed Charlotte condo developments.
In a deal that closed Tuesday, Patten Sales and Marketing bought the Garrison At Graham, 28th Row in Noda and The Vyne on Central Avenue from Community One Bank – properties that have gone into foreclosure in the past two years.
Patten specializes in buying foreclosed properties and getting them back on the market. According to its website, the company has purchased more than $400 million in bank and government-owned projects across the United States in the past 16 months.
“We’ve had probably … the best four months in our company’s history,” said John Nichols, who brokered the sale.
Nichols launched a division for bank-owned property in 2008 and now handles foreclosure sales for 21 North Carolina banks.
Still, Frank Arado, a Charlotte real estate attorney with Mayer Brown, say the economy isn’t strong enough to support the foreclosure-resale trend.
“That market generally has been somewhat of a dead market since the meltdown,” said Arado, who frequently represents foreclosing banks.
Arado said there isn’t enough demand to fill condos and other empty properties.
Until other economic factors like unemployment improve, he said, the market will stay weak.
“I think the real estate housing market in Charlotte still has a lot to go, a lot of work to be done,” Arado said.
Whether or not the properties fill up, the sale of foreclosed properties is still good news for the area, said real estate consultant Emma Littlejohn. Bank-owned properties are generally not as well-maintained as private developments, she said.
As Littlejohn puts it: “It’s good for the neighborhoods, for the properties, for the city, that these things would be moved through quickly.”
