The Bakersfield Californian reports about an in-progress shopping center development that is stalled because of a foreclosure. This story is interesting, in part, because there have been so few examples of this to date.
The brainchild of William Lee, the San Jose-based developer behind Union Avenue's Little Saigon Plaza shopping center, V Heritage Plaza was celebrated at its 2005 groundbreaking for its potential to brighten a blighted area. Offices, a health care facility and stores were slated for the southeast complex, the project's Web site shows.On Wednesday the property was foreclosed on by lender Marc Lantzman, president of a San Diego-based private mortgage fund, according to county records and the lender's foreclosure servicing company.
Lee owed more than $1.6 million to Lantzman, and construction companies were seeking more than $2 million in alleged back payments for work on the site, records show. Several of the so-called “mechanics liens” recording the debt were filed against Platinum Dragon Empire Inc., the company Lee formed for the commercial venture.