After a two-year slog through bankruptcy, a massive stalled development in Chesterfield can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Roseland, a planned 1,300-acre mixed-use project derailed by the economic downturn, reached a deal with its many creditors and had its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan approved Tuesday in federal court.
The agreement calls for about 800 acres to go back to the creditors of Roseland’s two owners, Roseland Village LLC and G.B.S. Holding Ltd. The remaining 500 acres will stay in the hands of Roseland’s original developers, Buddy Sowers and his son Casey Sowers.
![Read the reorganization plan [PDF]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Roseland-reorg-plan-218x300.jpg "Roseland gets a thorn out of its side 2")
Read the reorganization plan [PDF]
For the Sowerses, Tuesday’s confirmation of the reorganization plan injects new life into at least part of a project that they began piecing together almost 20 years ago.
“It’s been a long trip,” Casey Sowers said. “Nobody said it was going to be quick, and nobody said it was going to be easy. It does feel like a weight off our shoulders.”
Roseland was proposed in 2008 by as a colossal mixed-use planned community that would have more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and more than 5,600 housing units. The land sits south of Route 288 at the intersection with Woolridge Road in Chesterfield County, near Old Hundred and Otterdale roads.
But as the economy turned and the real estate market crashed, the weight of all that land and debt was too much for the family of developers to carry.
They owed about $20 million to Franklin Federal Savings Bank, $6.2 million to Central Virginia Bank, almost $6 million to Essex Bank, $5.5 million to an entity tied to developer HHHunt, $2 million to Paragon Bank and $1.7 million to Virginia Commonwealth Bank.
Roseland Village and G.B.S. Holding, the two entities that owned Roseland’s land, were put into bankruptcy in 2011 in the face of a possible foreclosure.
Bankruptcy “was the last thing we ever expected to do,” Sowers said. “It’s not been fun.”
Several versions of reorganization plans were proposed, but the lenders refused to bite in unison. Mediation was then ordered, but the stalemate persisted. A Northern Virginia developer bought its way into the fray this year and proposed its own plan to develop the property. Lenders would have none of that, either.
Finally, the Sowerses’ plan to return the bulk of the land and help shepherd rezoning amendments that would get the land on an easier path to development was agreed upon.
“When we first proposed a reorganization, it was treating this whole project as one contiguous mass,” Sowers said. “It’s just too big and too complicated to do that. With our resources, we didn’t have the capacity of corralling the entire project.”
For the 500 acres that the Sowers retained, they will look to their original plan for the development of the property, including keeping the Roseland name.
“We’ll plan on sticking to the vision that we conceived from the beginning,” Sowers said. “We have the idea right. We just may not have been right about the timing.”
As part of the agreement, the Sowerses have 15 months to market or sell those 500 acres. After that, the various lenders that own pieces of the 500 acres will have the right to foreclose or take control of the deed.
Sowers said he expects plenty of action on all the parcels to happen quickly, including the lenders finding buyers and zoning applications being brought to the county before the end of the year.
After a two-year slog through bankruptcy, a massive stalled development in Chesterfield can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Roseland, a planned 1,300-acre mixed-use project derailed by the economic downturn, reached a deal with its many creditors and had its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan approved Tuesday in federal court.
The agreement calls for about 800 acres to go back to the creditors of Roseland’s two owners, Roseland Village LLC and G.B.S. Holding Ltd. The remaining 500 acres will stay in the hands of Roseland’s original developers, Buddy Sowers and his son Casey Sowers.
Read the reorganization plan [PDF]
For the Sowerses, Tuesday’s confirmation of the reorganization plan injects new life into at least part of a project that they began piecing together almost 20 years ago.
“It’s been a long trip,” Casey Sowers said. “Nobody said it was going to be quick, and nobody said it was going to be easy. It does feel like a weight off our shoulders.”
Roseland was proposed in 2008 by as a colossal mixed-use planned community that would have more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and more than 5,600 housing units. The land sits south of Route 288 at the intersection with Woolridge Road in Chesterfield County, near Old Hundred and Otterdale roads.
But as the economy turned and the real estate market crashed, the weight of all that land and debt was too much for the family of developers to carry.
They owed about $20 million to Franklin Federal Savings Bank, $6.2 million to Central Virginia Bank, almost $6 million to Essex Bank, $5.5 million to an entity tied to developer HHHunt, $2 million to Paragon Bank and $1.7 million to Virginia Commonwealth Bank.
Roseland Village and G.B.S. Holding, the two entities that owned Roseland’s land, were put into bankruptcy in 2011 in the face of a possible foreclosure.
Bankruptcy “was the last thing we ever expected to do,” Sowers said. “It’s not been fun.”
Several versions of reorganization plans were proposed, but the lenders refused to bite in unison. Mediation was then ordered, but the stalemate persisted. A Northern Virginia developer bought its way into the fray this year and proposed its own plan to develop the property. Lenders would have none of that, either.
Finally, the Sowerses’ plan to return the bulk of the land and help shepherd rezoning amendments that would get the land on an easier path to development was agreed upon.
“When we first proposed a reorganization, it was treating this whole project as one contiguous mass,” Sowers said. “It’s just too big and too complicated to do that. With our resources, we didn’t have the capacity of corralling the entire project.”
For the 500 acres that the Sowers retained, they will look to their original plan for the development of the property, including keeping the Roseland name.
“We’ll plan on sticking to the vision that we conceived from the beginning,” Sowers said. “We have the idea right. We just may not have been right about the timing.”
As part of the agreement, the Sowerses have 15 months to market or sell those 500 acres. After that, the various lenders that own pieces of the 500 acres will have the right to foreclose or take control of the deed.
Sowers said he expects plenty of action on all the parcels to happen quickly, including the lenders finding buyers and zoning applications being brought to the county before the end of the year.