Business

Hamlin loses Carriage Park property to foreclosure

By Bill Moss, Published: October 6, 2016

Dale Hamlin, the Carriage Park developer who tried to stall a foreclosure with two 11th hour bankruptcy filings, has lost his last remaining property in the subdivision he created.

Arendale Holdings, which said in a court filing that Hamlin owed $14 million on an unpaid debt from 2011, bought the land for $6 million in a foreclosure sale on Sept. 20. The Arendale offer required an upset bid of $6.3 million and a cash deposit of $315,000; none was made.
Hamlin had tried through two different lawyers to block the foreclosure sale by filing a bankruptcy petition in federal court in Asheville. Arendale attorney Chad Sharkey argued in response that the filings were made solely to frustrate the lender's attempt to collect the debt. On the eve of scheduled foreclosure sales on the courthouse steps on April 8 and June 29, Hamlin attorneys filed bankruptcy petitions.
“This filing is the second time this year that the Debtor has filed a voluntary petition on the eve of a pending foreclosure sale of Arendale’s collateral, and represents nothing more than another attempt to delay and frustrate Arendale’s exercise of its rights against the Real Property for the sole benefit and gain of the Debtor’s principal, Dale Hamlin, and to allow him free use and depletion of the Debtor’s remaining assets to the detriment and harm of all creditors of the Debtor, including Arendale,” Sharkey wrote in an Aug. 12 motion asking a judge to dismiss the second bankruptcy petition.
“This is a single asset real estate case in which the real estate at issue, the remaining improved and unimproved lots and parcels in a stalled residential subdivision …” that is fully encumbered by Arendale’s secured note and “further subject to multiple subordinate judgment liens held by various parties defrauded by the Debtor.”
In a Chapter 11 case, Hamlin declared that the property was worth $10 million. On July 28, in its Chapter 7 petition, he declared it was worth $11,040,000.
“However, regardless of which value is used for the real property, in both cases the Debtor has been consistent in admitting that it has no equity” in the land, Sharkey said.
Arendale also contended that Hamlin — having “no revenue, has no operating capital, and had no cash on hand” — was unable to correct environmental and erosion control violations that were devaluing the land.
Henderson County, in a bankruptcy court filing on Aug. 16, agreed that his “absence of working capital” made it unlikely that Hamlin could correct the violations. County inspectors cited Carriage Park Associates for soil erosion violations and sediment buildup in December 2015 and ordered the company to fix the problem by Jan. 6.
“It did not,” County Attorney Russ Burrell said. “Enforcement measures have been made legally impractical due to the pending stay orders in the two Carriage Park Associates LLC bankruptcies. … Arendale has committed to the county that it will remediate the violations” once it takes control of the property.
Arendale Holdings, a Florida-based developer and manager of high-end resort properties and golf course communities, has told Carriage Park residents that it planned to develop the remaining acreage once it owned the property.
According to the lender’s lawsuits, Carriage Park Associates LLC, Hamlin and his wife, Elissa B. Hamlin, failed to repay a $9.7 million loan on the land and buildings made on Nov. 11, 2011, and had failed to pay property taxes on the 124 parcels in 2015. Hamlin pocketed earnest money without putting it in escrow and faced numerous civil judgments that resulted in liens on the property, Arendale said in court documents. Hamlin could not be reached for comment.
Arendale owns and manages residential, commercial, golf course and resort properties in six states, including the Carolinas. In December 2013, it bought the Cliffs communities from SunTX Urbana and the Carlile Group. With that acquisition, the privately held company became the owner and manager of eight upscale golf course developments in the area, including the Cliffs at Glassy in the South Carolina Upstate, three Cliffs communities on Lake Keowee, S.C., and the Cliffs at Walnut Cove and High Carolina in Asheville.