HomeLatest NewsFeatured HomebuildersHome Buyer ResourcesBinding ArbitrationResource LinksSubmit ComplaintsView ComplaintsTake Action 101!Report Mortgage FraudMortgage Fraud NewsForeclosure NewsConstruction DefectsHome DefectsPhoto GalleryFoundation ProblemsHomeowner Website LinksHOA Reform
Main Menu
Home
Latest News
Featured Homebuilders
Home Buyer Resources
Binding Arbitration
Resource Links
Submit Complaints
View Complaints
Take Action 101!
Report Mortgage Fraud
Mortgage Fraud News
Foreclosure News
Construction Defects
Home Defects
Photo Gallery
Foundation Problems
Homeowner Website Links
HOA Reform
Featured Topics
Builder Death Spiral
Report Mortgage Fraud
Foreclosure Special Report
Mold & New Home Guide
Special News Reports
Centex & Habitability
How Fast Can They Build Them?
TRCC Editorial
Texas TRCC Scandal
Texas Watch - Tell Lawmakers
TRCC Recommendations
Sandra Bullock
People's Lawyer
Prevent Nightmare Homes
Choice Homes
Smart Money
Weekly Update Message
News
Latest News
HOBB News
Editorials
New Jersey
New Jersey & Texas
Write Letters to the Editors
TRCC in the News
Texas TRCC Scandal
Survey
Fair Use Notice
HOBB Archives
About HOBB
Contact Us
Fair Use Notice
Legislative Work
Your House

 HOBB News Alerts
and Updates

Click Here to Subscribe

Support HOBB - Become a Sustaining Member
Who's Online
ABC Special Report
Investigation: New Home Heartbreak
Trump - NAHB Homebuilders Shoddy Construction and Forced Arbitration
Developer sued by 52 homeowners
Friday, 06 April 2007

Tuscan Hills plan ends in foreclosure
Mayer-Luce Development had announced it would build an 18-hole golf course hotel and high-end homes, a first for Desert Hot Springs, dubbing it Tuscan Hills in mid-2005. Now the company no longer owns the project and is being sued by 52 homeowners at its other Desert Hot Springs development, Hacienda Heights, who complain of shoddy construction work.

Tuscan Hills plan ends in foreclosure
Friday, April 6, 2007
By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise

 

The hotel should've almost been built by now, but a cooling housing market has sent a barely touched 550-acre parcel in Desert Hot Springs into foreclosure.

Mayer-Luce Development had announced it would build an 18-hole golf course hotel and high-end homes, a first for Desert Hot Springs, dubbing it Tuscan Hills in mid-2005. Now the company no longer owns the project and is being sued by 52 homeowners at its other Desert Hot Springs development, Hacienda Heights, who complain of shoddy construction work.

Robert Mayer, one half of the Mayer-Luce firm, said the foreclosure sale had been arranged and agreed upon by his company and the lender last October after attorneys on both sides said it would be the best option, "to release us from the personal liability that was attached to the loans," he said.

Story continues below
2005 / Kurt Miller / The Press-Enterprise
Developer Walter Luce stands where he hopes to build a golf course as part of his planned Tuscan Hills project in Desert Hot Springs.

Scripps Investments & Loans Inc., which loaned $34 million to the project, formed Scripps Tuscan Hills LLC and along with a family trust bought the property in foreclosure for $38.4 million on Jan. 26, according to Riverside County records.

"We're thinking about what we need to do. We're moving forward cautiously," said Jeffrey Lubin, president of Scripps.

Mayer said the size of the project made it difficult to find financing when the company needed it last year to pay off the $34 million loan from Scripps. When Mayer-Luce had to start paying interest, the company realized the project wouldn't last long.

"We paid over a million dollars out of pocket to keep it going for a couple months longer," Mayer said.

In 2005, Walter Luce said that the 350- to 450-room hotel would be finished two to three years later. Last year, Luce said he was slowing down on Tuscan Hills' development to watch the housing market.

"The market up here ... went from being one of the fastest-growing cities in the state to where sales have softened dramatically," he said. "The Coachella Valley was really the last part of Southern California to feel the crunch. We thought that maybe we wouldn't be affected by it," he said.

Mayer said the company is finishing developments in Banning and Oakland and working on commercial projects in Riverside County.

"We are going forward. We're a lot leaner of a company than we were," he said.

Three weeks ago, Irvine-based attorney Ken Kasdan sued the company, accusing it of construction defects at its Hacienda Heights development including stucco and concrete foundation cracks, window leaks and roof leaks.

"Overall we're alleging very poor quality and shoddy workmanship," Kasdan said. The homeowners will likely seek about $250,000 each, which they believe is the cost to repair their homes, he said.

Mayer said it appears that most of the homeowners didn't contact the company's customer service center first to talk about construction issues.

"We're kind of skeptical as to the real impetus behind that," he said.

http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_D_webforeclosure.1689d01.html

 
< Prev   Next >
Search HOBB.org

Reckless Endangerment
BY: GRETCHEN MORGENSON
and JOSHUA ROSNER

Outsized Ambition, Greed and
Corruption Led to
Economic Armageddon


Amazon
Barnes & Noble

 Feature
Rise and Fall of Predatory Lending and Housing

NY Times: Building Flawed American Dreams 
Read CATO Institute: 
HUD Scandals

Listen to NPR:
Reckless Endangerman
by
Gretchen Morgenson : How 'Reckless' Greed Contributed
to Financial Crisis - Fannie Mae

NPR Special Report
Part I Listen Now
Perry Home - No Warranty 
Part II Listen Now
Texas Favors Builders

Washington Post
The housing bubble, in four chapters
BusinessWeek Special Reports
Bonfire of the Builders
Homebuilders helped fuel the housing crisis
Housing: That Sinking Feeling

Texas Regulates Homebuyers
 
Texas Comptroller Condemns TRCC Builder Protection Agency
TRCC is the punishment phase of homeownership in Texas

HOBB Update Messages

Consumer Affairs Builder Complaints

IS YOUR STATE NEXT?
As Goes Texas So Goes the Nation
Knowledge and Financial Responsibility are still Optional for Texas Home Builders

OUTSTANDING FOX4 REPORT
TRCC from Bad to Worse
Case of the Crooked House

TRCC AN ARRESTING EXPERIENCE
The Pat and Bob Egert Building & TRCC Experience 

Builders Looking for Federal Handouts

Build it right the first time
An interview with Janet Ahmad

Bad Binding Arbitration Experience?
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 1-210-402-6800

Drum Major Institute
for Public Policy

Tort Deform
Report Your Arbitration Experience

Homebuilding Texas Style
And the walls came
tumblin' down

 Texas Homebuilder
Bob Perry Political Contributions

  The Agency Bob Perry Built
 TRCC Connection News
Tort Reform

NPR Interview - Perry's
Political influence movement.
Click to listen 

REWARD
MOST WANTED

ARIZONA REGISTRAR OF CONTRACTORS
Have you seen any of these individuals

 Feature: Mother Jones Magazine
Are you Next?
People Magazine - Jordan Fogal fights back
Because of construction defects Jordan’s Tremont Home is uninhabitable
http://www.tremonthomehorrors.com/
You could be the next victim
Interview with Award Winning Author Jordan Fogal

Special Money Report
Big Money and Shoddy Construction:Texas Home Buyers Left Out in the Cold
Read More
Read Report: Big Money…
Home Builder Money Source of Influence

Letters to the Editor
Write your letters to the Editor

Homeowner Websites

top of page

© 2024 HomeOwners for Better Building
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.