Urban Jacksonville

no kidding.

in restaurant/retail circles its called a 'clustering strategy'.

when we first started talking about reinventing main street in 2002, this was our stated goal.

however, with rita r. in the mix it was bound to go south sooner or later, next thing we knew, there were suddenly 'camps' in springfield. craig emerged as the loner and it was off to the races.

it didnt help that he was impatiently trying to use his retail development to create rapid value increases in his properties. (which would have actually happened even faster with a vibrant village style retail strip on main street.)

a rising tide lifts all boats.

In reference to Stephen Dare's initial comment, what this area needs are many restaurant venues in the same area. That's the secret sauce known in economist circles as centralization theory. More customers are drawn to an area by centralizing businesses of a common nature. It builds market share for everyone. While in an early stage, all the businesses should be helping each other as best they can until commercial viability is stable. The classic examples are the auto sales areas and fast food stretches lingering at the edge of Anytown, USA.

Is it a bad thing? Aside from the possibility of Hionides getting a hold of it, the property moving to a new owner might mean some action that we have been promised since 2005 (8th and Pearl was supposed to FINISHED by summer 2005)

I work with individuals in foreclosure regularly and it would appear that Mr. Van horn's company has not been making regular monthly payments for a while now. You generally need to be behind a few months and not work out a refinance plan with the bank before forecolsure proceedings begin. As of the 25th, he has a couple of months to bring the note up to term (come across a sum of money or sell the property for the loan balance) before the property goes to the courthouse steps.
Mr. Van horn owns some key properties in the Springfield area and I really hope this does not start a domino effect with the rest of his properties. This would be a great detriment to the commercial growth of Springfield and we all know it definitely needs it!

We covered this in my Property class this past semester, so I am by no means an expert, but it does appear that Amsouth has initiated foreclosure proceedings. If memory serves, which it may not, a hearing will now ensue to see if VH did in fact default on his obligation to Amsouth. If the court then grants foreclosure to AS, VH has 10 days after the judgment to pay off all of what he owes the bank and can avoid foreclosure. Of course, they can always come to some sort of settlement at any time.

Van Horn is evidently not able to develop his land, so we won't be any worse off if Hionides gets it. But if Van Horn's 8th street properties become available and Hionides gets outbid, it could be a good thing.

I like to get the opinion of whoever defended Van Horn's timeline on the 8th and Pearl project when I voiced my doubt during the permitting process.

"A "lis pendens" is a document filed in the public records that notifies any prospective purchaser of property that there is litigation pending that could affect title to the property. They are most often seen in mortgage foreclosures, but are used in other actions such as boundary disputes, eminent domain matters, and easement litigation."
Source - http://en.allexperts.com/q/Real-Estate-Law-930/...

With that said, I'm not in the field of law but this definitely looks like the start of the foreclosure process. Hopefully someone can save this project, it just seemed problematic from the beginning.

Van Horn took out a balloon mortgage back in early 2004,
(http://www.duvalclerk.com/oncoreweb/showdetails...) under the company name of Symbiosis Investments LLC, then it appears transferred that debt / refinanced in mid-2005 under the company name Historic Springfield Townhomes LLC, (http://www.duvalclerk.com/oncoreweb/showdetails...) possibly to pull out the equity (speculation). This type of asset management is common but sometimes can be used in the wrong ways to move assets and debts around in shell corporations to make there financial situation look better or worse than it actually is. Maybe now Van Horn is low on funds or has given up on this venture. Urban Jacksonville has opened up Pandora’s Box again and no doubt its readers will help navigate the murky waters in search of a valid explanation.

Now, potentially one by one, each property can be gobbled up by Hionedes and we will all be back in the slum with expensive mortgages and high property taxes.

I feel more for Springfield. I don't like to see people go into foreclosure or bankruptcy, but in his case, it does appear to be self inflicted.

by now, craig would have already been 18k closer from a lease with boomtown.

I seriously don't get this guy.

I never really got the reason for the rivalry between Boomtown and 9th and Main in the first place, but even so, it would have been better for the neighborhood (not to mention his own finances---obviously) to have leased to us when we first approached him about it 19 months ago. (as his relationship with Justin, Dave, and Debra was coming to its blow up.) No one would have been any the wiser, and instead he would have looked like he was coming to our rescue instead of the other way around....

Under the terms of that lease, he would have been 120k to the good by now. Instead he rapidly opened and closed 5 operations inside the space at god knows what cost to the various groups and his own resources.

Unless I miss my guess and misunderstand the cross financed nature of his empire, a foreclosure on any one of the properties will have a domino effect on all the rest of them.

This cannot possibly be a good sign for Craig period....much less the pearl street project.

He either needs to fish or cut bait, and I feel for the guy.