The Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane has been taken off the auction block. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
The fate of an infamous developer’s former Richmond home will remain a mystery for now.
The May 20 foreclosure auction of Justin French’s 10,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane has been cancelled.
Rockville, Maryland-based BWW Law Group, which scheduled the sale last month on behalf of Arlington-based Equity Trustees, confirmed the sale is cancelled but would not comment as to why.
Equity Trustees was appointed in March as a substitute trustee of the deed. Bank of New York Mellon is the primary trustee, and the noteholder is CWALT Inc., an alternative loan trust, city records show.
Bayview Loan Servicing is the servicer on the loan, which totals $1.45 million and was originally issued by Virginia Beach-based Resource Bank. (A previous BizSense article misidentified that bank as a similarly named institution in Illinois.) The Virginia Beach bank has since been acquired by Fulton Bank in Pennsylvania.
?Prior to Bayview, the servicer had been Bank of America?.? ?D?uring that time?,? ALG Trustee handled the last in a string of ?attempted auctions since 2010, but? it? cancelled the sale in August 2012.
A representative for Bank of America said Bayview is now responsible for conducting the foreclosure and maintenance as part of its servicing role. A call to Bayview on Monday was not returned by press time.
The 2-acre property is located in the Hampton Gardens neighborhood off Patterson Avenue, near its intersection with Willow Lawn Drive. French and his wife Tanya, who are still listed in city records as the owners of the property, purchased the home in 2003 for $1.76 million.
A recent city assessment valued the property at $1.73 million.
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 after a 16-year sentence.
The eight-bedroom, 7½-bathroom mansion was built in 1919 for Abram McClellan, a Richmond businessman. It was designed by Duncan Lee, a well-known Richmond architect of the time, and later served as the home of Douglas Southall Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and onetime editor of the former Richmond News Leader.
The Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane has been taken off the auction block. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
The fate of an infamous developer’s former Richmond home will remain a mystery for now.
The May 20 foreclosure auction of Justin French’s 10,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion at 330 Oak Lane has been cancelled.
Rockville, Maryland-based BWW Law Group, which scheduled the sale last month on behalf of Arlington-based Equity Trustees, confirmed the sale is cancelled but would not comment as to why.
Equity Trustees was appointed in March as a substitute trustee of the deed. Bank of New York Mellon is the primary trustee, and the noteholder is CWALT Inc., an alternative loan trust, city records show.
Bayview Loan Servicing is the servicer on the loan, which totals $1.45 million and was originally issued by Virginia Beach-based Resource Bank. (A previous BizSense article misidentified that bank as a similarly named institution in Illinois.) The Virginia Beach bank has since been acquired by Fulton Bank in Pennsylvania.
?Prior to Bayview, the servicer had been Bank of America?.? ?D?uring that time?,? ALG Trustee handled the last in a string of ?attempted auctions since 2010, but? it? cancelled the sale in August 2012.
A representative for Bank of America said Bayview is now responsible for conducting the foreclosure and maintenance as part of its servicing role. A call to Bayview on Monday was not returned by press time.
The 2-acre property is located in the Hampton Gardens neighborhood off Patterson Avenue, near its intersection with Willow Lawn Drive. French and his wife Tanya, who are still listed in city records as the owners of the property, purchased the home in 2003 for $1.76 million.
A recent city assessment valued the property at $1.73 million.
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 after a 16-year sentence.
The eight-bedroom, 7½-bathroom mansion was built in 1919 for Abram McClellan, a Richmond businessman. It was designed by Duncan Lee, a well-known Richmond architect of the time, and later served as the home of Douglas Southall Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and onetime editor of the former Richmond News Leader.