The property at 2425 Chamberlayne Ave., listed for sale or lease. (Photos by Jonathan Spiers)
With the recent sale of some of his real estate holdings, an area landlord appears to be making good on the terms of a settlement agreement in his ongoing personal bankruptcy case.
Oliver Lawrence, as of mid-September, had paid nearly $225,000 of the $900,000 tab owed in his Chapter 7 case, according to court filings. Additional proceeds are expected by year-end.
Oliver Lawrence
A settlement agreement with the bankruptcy trustee required Lawrence, both individually and through his now-defunct Chamberlayne Auto Sales & Repair business, to pay $200,000 within the first six months of this year, another $200,000 in the second half of the year, and $500,000 the first half of next year.
So far, those funds have been coming from the sale of the properties tied to the bankruptcy case: the former Chamberlayne Auto Sales & Repair site at 2425 Chamberlayne Ave., and a second commercial property at 402-404 Westover Hills Blvd. Both properties were sold in recent months following online auctions handled by Tranzon Fox’s Bill Londrey.
The Chamberlayne property, at the intersection of Chamberlayne and Overbrook Road, sold July 26 for $440,000 to 302 Express Inc., city property records show. The latest city assessment valued the 0.4-acre property at $247,000.
The buyer lists the same address as 301 Express, a convenience store at Maury Street and Cowardin Avenue in Richmond’s Blackwell neighborhood. Yasmine Hamad of Partner Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer and has listed the property for sale or lease.
Hamad said the buyer bought the property as an investment. She’s listed it for sale with a $675,000 price tag, and for rent with a triple net lease at $4,000 per month.
The convenience store and vacant garage at 402-404 Westover Hills Blvd.
The Westover Hills property, just north of the boulevard’s Midlothian Turnpike interchange, sold Sept. 25 for $575,000 to an entity called BSAM LLC. The 0.7-acre property most recently was assessed at $524,000.
It’s unclear what is planned for that property, which consists of a vacant five-bay garage and an operating convenience store. Attempts to reach a principal with the LLC were not successful.
Londrey held the auctions for those properties over the summer. He said at the time that Lawrence gave the go-ahead for the sales, and that future auctions – if needed to meet the $900,000 bankruptcy payback amount – likely would involve one or more of Lawrence’s residential rental properties, which are said to total over 1,000.
With the two sales totaling more than $1 million, additional sales do not appear to be needed to satisfy the $900,000 payback amount.
Properties tied to allegations
Both properties were mentioned in Lawrence’s bankruptcy case as examples of what trustee Peter Barrett, of law firm Kutak Rock, alleged as a scheme by Lawrence and his wife Kim to defraud creditors by moving money and assets between them.
Case in point to that argument was the Chamberlayne property, which Barrett alleged was strategically put under Kim’s name as owner, even though Oliver effectively ran the auto business there. The property’s ownership remained under Kim’s name at the time of the sale.
The Westover Hills property housed another auto business that Lawrence owned through Auto Center Holdings. Barrett alleged money from that business was transferred to a bank account for Lawrence’s home rental business but still was used to make payments on Auto Center debts.
Lawrence’s home rental business, the latest iteration of which was LBKBL Properties, totaled over 1,200 properties at the time of a creditors meeting in 2017. According to Barrett’s complaint, which led to the settlement, by the end of 2016, LBKBL owned $2.5 million in real estate and collected almost $350,000 in annual rents.
Earlier this year, Lawrence served three months in jail on charges relating to an incident in Petersburg that allegedly occurred while he was en route to some of his properties there. He was released in July after pleading guilty to lesser charges.
The property at 2425 Chamberlayne Ave., listed for sale or lease. (Photos by Jonathan Spiers)
With the recent sale of some of his real estate holdings, an area landlord appears to be making good on the terms of a settlement agreement in his ongoing personal bankruptcy case.
Oliver Lawrence, as of mid-September, had paid nearly $225,000 of the $900,000 tab owed in his Chapter 7 case, according to court filings. Additional proceeds are expected by year-end.
Oliver Lawrence
A settlement agreement with the bankruptcy trustee required Lawrence, both individually and through his now-defunct Chamberlayne Auto Sales & Repair business, to pay $200,000 within the first six months of this year, another $200,000 in the second half of the year, and $500,000 the first half of next year.
So far, those funds have been coming from the sale of the properties tied to the bankruptcy case: the former Chamberlayne Auto Sales & Repair site at 2425 Chamberlayne Ave., and a second commercial property at 402-404 Westover Hills Blvd. Both properties were sold in recent months following online auctions handled by Tranzon Fox’s Bill Londrey.
The Chamberlayne property, at the intersection of Chamberlayne and Overbrook Road, sold July 26 for $440,000 to 302 Express Inc., city property records show. The latest city assessment valued the 0.4-acre property at $247,000.
The buyer lists the same address as 301 Express, a convenience store at Maury Street and Cowardin Avenue in Richmond’s Blackwell neighborhood. Yasmine Hamad of Partner Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer and has listed the property for sale or lease.
Hamad said the buyer bought the property as an investment. She’s listed it for sale with a $675,000 price tag, and for rent with a triple net lease at $4,000 per month.
The convenience store and vacant garage at 402-404 Westover Hills Blvd.
The Westover Hills property, just north of the boulevard’s Midlothian Turnpike interchange, sold Sept. 25 for $575,000 to an entity called BSAM LLC. The 0.7-acre property most recently was assessed at $524,000.
It’s unclear what is planned for that property, which consists of a vacant five-bay garage and an operating convenience store. Attempts to reach a principal with the LLC were not successful.
Londrey held the auctions for those properties over the summer. He said at the time that Lawrence gave the go-ahead for the sales, and that future auctions – if needed to meet the $900,000 bankruptcy payback amount – likely would involve one or more of Lawrence’s residential rental properties, which are said to total over 1,000.
With the two sales totaling more than $1 million, additional sales do not appear to be needed to satisfy the $900,000 payback amount.
Properties tied to allegations
Both properties were mentioned in Lawrence’s bankruptcy case as examples of what trustee Peter Barrett, of law firm Kutak Rock, alleged as a scheme by Lawrence and his wife Kim to defraud creditors by moving money and assets between them.
Case in point to that argument was the Chamberlayne property, which Barrett alleged was strategically put under Kim’s name as owner, even though Oliver effectively ran the auto business there. The property’s ownership remained under Kim’s name at the time of the sale.
The Westover Hills property housed another auto business that Lawrence owned through Auto Center Holdings. Barrett alleged money from that business was transferred to a bank account for Lawrence’s home rental business but still was used to make payments on Auto Center debts.
Lawrence’s home rental business, the latest iteration of which was LBKBL Properties, totaled over 1,200 properties at the time of a creditors meeting in 2017. According to Barrett’s complaint, which led to the settlement, by the end of 2016, LBKBL owned $2.5 million in real estate and collected almost $350,000 in annual rents.
Earlier this year, Lawrence served three months in jail on charges relating to an incident in Petersburg that allegedly occurred while he was en route to some of his properties there. He was released in July after pleading guilty to lesser charges.
Those rental real estate numbers really don’t add up… 1k properties worth 2.5m with a rent roll of 350k?
What rent would you expect 1 Million of property to bring in?
Simply doing numbers on this. 1k properties would have an average value of only $2,500, which even with the state of those properties seems low. An average rent of $350 annually would make the average monthly rent about $30. Once again even given the state of the properties that seems low unless a vast majority are not generating any rent.