The Park still on agenda for Verna as legal actions mount - Charlotte Business Journal:

bojony.wordpress.com
His business colleagues, caught in the crossfirer of legal actions, don’t want the 82-year-old businessman to discuss it. To protec him, they say. But Verna believesa he has the answer for repaying creditors and giving condo buyers whatwas promised. And that’z for to finish the building. The troubled plaguing the tower, he says, were a combinatioh of the credit crunch and soaringconstruction prices. Other developers have face d thesame thing, he says. Verna talks as he sits in the conferencde room ofVerna & Associates on Wednesday. He stop s every now and then to peer over a pile of blueprintsa forThe Park. He points out uniquer design elements.
A rendering of the unfinished uptown towetr is tacked on the wallbehind him. He speaks of his desirre to get thebuildint back. To finish what he started. “My plan is to do says Verna, who built a 34-yeat career repairing broken buildings. “To complete it as But to fix what’s gone wrong at The Park seemds improbable. Verna no longer controls the property, adjacent to his Caldwell Streetoffice building. His lende r launched foreclosure proceedingsin June, claimingv a debt of more than $27 million on the development’e $30.7 million construction loan. An auction held Aug.
7 may be invalif now that three contractors have filed an involuntary bankruptcyg petitionagainst Verna’s . Work stopped months ago as the lawsuit over unpaid billsstacked up. At least 16 legal actions have been filed alleging morethan $5.18 millionb owed for labor and materials at The Park. That doesn’y include lawsuits from contract holders of units at The Three havebeen filed, including one from Carolina Panther punter Jason Baker, who put down a $62,50p0 deposit for a unit priced at $625,000 plus $40,0000 in upgrades.
Verna says the debts will be resolvedc and the units delivered once he is able to complete the At riskis Verna’s reputation as well as everythin g he owns, even his as creditors circle. When asked what went Verna points tothe day’w story in The Wall Street Journal about a luxuryu condo project in New York that faltered from cost overrunxs and increased demands from lenders. “What happened there, happened he says. When asked where all the moneuy went, he points in the direction ofThe “Costs went sky-high and the banks wouldn’t lend us any more The Park condo is about 60% constructed, toppedc out with penthouses partially complete.
the framework for walls is markingoff units. Throughout, the building includes extraordinary mechanical elements that Vernz speaks ofwith vigor.