IRVING Lenders finally made good on their threats to foreclose on the posh Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas.
Mortgage holders sold the 431-room luxury Irving hotel, conference center and spa at auction Tuesday morning. The foreclosure comes seven months after lenders first posted the 400-acre property for sale after the owners missed payments on the more than $175 million in debt.
During that time, hotel owner BentleyForbes of California continued to negotiate with servicing companies which represented owners of the securitized debt.
The lenders bought the property at auction for $122 million, said George Roddy, president of Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.
They started the bidding at $110 million and there was another bidder so they went up, Roddy said.
Typically the lenders at foreclosure auctions buy the property in all but a small number of cases where outside investors purchase the real estate.
The Las Colinas Four Seasons which had original debt of $183 million is the largest North Texas property to be foreclosed on in more than two decades.
The hotel is the home base of the annual Byron Nelson Championship golf tournament.
Today's foreclosure posting is a normal part of the restructuring process that we have been a part of for the past few months, said Four Seasons Resort and Club general manager Michael Newcombe in a written statement. Our day-to-day business operations remain unaffected; indeed, we are very encouraged by the strong demand for hotel rooms and events in North Texas.
More than 250 commercial properties with almost $880 million in loans are scheduled for foreclosure today in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties.
Usually less than half of the properties are actually foreclosed each month as borrowers and lenders continue to negotiate.
During the first six months of 2010, commercial property foreclosure postings in North Texas have jumped 58 percent from the same time last year, according to Foreclosure Listing Service.
