{"id":2453435,"date":"2020-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=319402"},"modified":"2020-01-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T07:00:00","slug":"once-bankrupt-snowmass-home-sells-at-foreclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/once-bankrupt-snowmass-home-sells-at-foreclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"Once bankrupt, Snowmass home sells at foreclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The note-holder on a Snowmass spec home that went bankrupt last year has taken ownership of the property through a foreclosure sale.<\/p>\n

Okean Investments of Florida Inc.\u2019s sole bid of $6.99 million at Wednesday\u2019s foreclosure auction at the Pitkin County Courthouse gave it possession of the home at 999 Brush Creek Road, which had been developed and owned through a limited liability corporation controlled by Peter Droste.<\/p>\n

Droste could not be reached Friday, but his counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings said he\u2019s cutting his losses. The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home at one time had been advertised for $16 million. Construction on the home was completed in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gone through this battle with Pitkin County \u2026 and I think he\u2019s resolved himself to move on,\u201d said attorney John LaSalle of Carbondale.<\/p>\n

The Droste family sold their Brush Creek Ranch open space \u2014 now a mountain-bike haven known Sky Mountain Park \u2014 for $17 million to Pitkin County in 2010. The sale of more than 800 acres came after the Droste family and the county had been immersed in litigation over the property the Drostes had eyed for the development of a residential subdivision.<\/p>\n

Members of the Droste family still owned some property in the area, however, including 999 Brush Creek Road, which Peter Droste developed through 999 Brush Creek Road LLC, the legal entity that owned the property.<\/p>\n

The real estate website Zillow describe the property as a \u201c14,688-square-foot home on 46 private acres minutes from world-class skiing, shopping and dining. \u2026 Its main rooms capture the quiet beauty of the Rocky Mountains in every window. Many generous rooms for large scale entertaining. Grand salon with carved fireplace, large kitchen, butler\u2019s pantry to serve the dining room which can seat two or 32. Main floor office, guest master and soundproofed theatre. Handcrafted antique mahogany entry doors. 2400-square-foot main master suite with steam shower, large dressing room, two balconies with mountain views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the LLC was unable to pay down Okean Investments\u2019 $6.75 million secured note on the property, prompting the note holder to begin foreclosure proceedings in April 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe LLC couldn\u2019t come up with the monthly payments of over $60,000, and that\u2019s why the foreclosure got started,\u201d LaSalle said.<\/p>\n

The LLC, however, was able to stall the foreclosure proceedings by seeking protection from its creditors through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Aug. 12 in Denver, the same week the property had been scheduled to go to auction by the Pitkin County Treasurer\u2019s Office. A bankruptcy filing triggers what is called an \u201cautomatic stay\u201d on a foreclosure proceeding, effectively postponing or possibly canceling the auction.<\/p>\n

The bankruptcy filing achieved its purpose by initially staying the foreclosure proceedings for 999 Brush Creek Road LLC. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Joseph G. Rosania Jr., however, ruled Dec. 3 in Okean Investments\u2019 favor to lift the stay on the foreclosure proceedings.<\/p>\n

Even so, \u201cthe judge held that the value of the property was at least $9.5 million and so there was definite equity in the property,\u201d LaSalle said, noting Okean Investments issued a \u201cgross underbid\u201d for the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago when the LLC got the loan that was foreclosed on, the property was appraised at $13.5 million, and that was approximately half the loan amount,\u201d LaSalle said.<\/p>\n

The LLC had owed more than $8.3 million to Okean Investments, which said it had not received any payments on the note, with interesting accruing at $4,500 a day, attorney Jason Buckley said at an October hearing.<\/p>\n

Buckley is a member of the Aspen law firm Garfield & Hecht, which provided legal counsel to Okean Investments during the foreclosure action and bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Attorney Chris Bryan, also of Garfield & Hecht, said last week it was unclear what Okean Investments\u2019 immediate intentions with the property were; a certificate of sale was introduced Thursday in the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Okean was one of two secured creditors in the bankruptcy case; the Pitkin County Treasurer\u2019s Office is the other one, with a tax lien of $21,807 on the property, according to court documents. The Pitkin County Building Department has an unsecured claim of $85,000, and an Aspen law firm has a $5,800 claim. The bankruptcy case remains pending.<\/p>\n

D&D Mortgage of Florida originally held the loan note.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The note-holder on a Snowmass spec home that went bankrupt last year has taken ownership of the property through a foreclosure sale. Okean Investments of Florida Inc.\u2019s sole bid of $6.99 million at Wednesday\u2019s foreclosure auction at the Pitkin County Courthouse gave it possession of the home at 999 Brush Creek Road, which had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 20:07:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}