The mansion at 330 Oak Lane is facing an auction. Photo by Michael Schwartz, 2012.
Three years after it was last up for auction, the West End mansion of imprisoned developer Justin French is once again headed to foreclosure.
French’s 10,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane is scheduled for a foreclosure sale on May 20 on the steps of the Richmond Circuit Court at 9 a.m.
Arlington-based Equity Trustees was appointed March 27 as substitute trustee of the 2-acre property, which is located just off Patterson Avenue near its intersection with Willow Lawn Drive.
Rockville, Maryland-based BWW Law Group, the attorneys representing Equity Trustees in the sale, would not comment beyond the sale’s public notice.
City records show that Resource Bank issued a $1.45 million loan on the property. The loan was previously held by Bank of America, when ALG Trustee was handling an attempted foreclosure in 2012.
That was the last time the property was up for public auction. That sale – one of several that had been scheduled since 2010 – was cancelled at the request of ALG.
French and his wife Tanya are still listed in city records as the owners of the property. The couple purchased the home in 2003 for $1.765 million.
A recent city assessment valued the property at $1.73 million.
Located in the Hampton Gardens neighborhood, the eight-bedroom, 7½-bathroom mansion was built in 1919 for Abram McClellan, a Richmond businessman. Named Pinehurst, it was designed by Duncan Lee, a well-known Richmond architect of the time.
The home was renamed Westbourne in 1938 by its second owner, Douglas Southall Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biographer and onetime editor of the former Richmond News Leader.
The home has fallen into disrepair in the years since French was sent to federal prison for a massive real estate tax credit scheme. It was condemned by the city late last year, according to a Times-Dispatch report.
French is scheduled to be released from prison in 2027.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Illinois-based Resource Bank owns the loan on the property. The loan documents are in fact tied back to the former Virginia Beach-based Resource Bank, which in the years since the loan was issued has been acquired by Fulton Bank in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned to BizSense for an update on this property.
The mansion at 330 Oak Lane is facing an auction. Photo by Michael Schwartz, 2012.
Three years after it was last up for auction, the West End mansion of imprisoned developer Justin French is once again headed to foreclosure.
French’s 10,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane is scheduled for a foreclosure sale on May 20 on the steps of the Richmond Circuit Court at 9 a.m.
Arlington-based Equity Trustees was appointed March 27 as substitute trustee of the 2-acre property, which is located just off Patterson Avenue near its intersection with Willow Lawn Drive.
Rockville, Maryland-based BWW Law Group, the attorneys representing Equity Trustees in the sale, would not comment beyond the sale’s public notice.
City records show that Resource Bank issued a $1.45 million loan on the property. The loan was previously held by Bank of America, when ALG Trustee was handling an attempted foreclosure in 2012.
That was the last time the property was up for public auction. That sale – one of several that had been scheduled since 2010 – was cancelled at the request of ALG.
French and his wife Tanya are still listed in city records as the owners of the property. The couple purchased the home in 2003 for $1.765 million.
A recent city assessment valued the property at $1.73 million.
Located in the Hampton Gardens neighborhood, the eight-bedroom, 7½-bathroom mansion was built in 1919 for Abram McClellan, a Richmond businessman. Named Pinehurst, it was designed by Duncan Lee, a well-known Richmond architect of the time.
The home was renamed Westbourne in 1938 by its second owner, Douglas Southall Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biographer and onetime editor of the former Richmond News Leader.
The home has fallen into disrepair in the years since French was sent to federal prison for a massive real estate tax credit scheme. It was condemned by the city late last year, according to a Times-Dispatch report.
French is scheduled to be released from prison in 2027.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Illinois-based Resource Bank owns the loan on the property. The loan documents are in fact tied back to the former Virginia Beach-based Resource Bank, which in the years since the loan was issued has been acquired by Fulton Bank in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned to BizSense for an update on this property.
I am curious as to how the city coukd appraise the property for 1.73 Million when they have condemned it?
@Angela Wade: Great question and here is my opinion: Being in the real estate field, it’s all about what someone is WILLING to pay for the property. Given the notoriety of the property, I’m sure it will go for above what the bank is owed.
Hope someone rescues it, and soon. It’s a magnificent bit of architecture. Sadly, a previous generation of heirs sold off its surrounding grounds to a housing developer. So it’s sort of hemmed-in now.