FORT WORTH -- A Florida-based real estate firm that specializes in acquiring distressed condo projects has bought the remaining 17 condos in the Villa De Leon luxury condo tower downtown along the Trinity River banks out of receivership.
Patten Sales & Marketing in Naples closed on the units Dec. 27 with Southwest Securities in Dallas, deed records show. Southwest Securities foreclosed on the six-story, 23-unit condo tower in March 2012 after developers missed one loan payment.Gino Taliento, Patten's national sales director, said it took company CEO Michael Patten one trip to the project on historic Samuels Avenue to decide he wanted the property in the company's portfolio. Taliento called Villa De Leon "one of the nicest project's we've ever seen."The condos will go back up for sale Friday, and a grand opening sale will be held March 2, Taliento said. The units start at $499,900 and will go into the mid-$600,000s, prices that are half the original asking prices, he said. One condo is already under contract, he said.Taliento declined to disclose the sales price with Southwest Securities.Villa De Leon was started in fall 2007, about a year before the financial markets collapsed. Despite the economic downturn, developers completed the tower and opened the building in 2009."He did everything right," Taliento said of the project developer, Tom Struhs. "He just had bad timing," in terms of real estate markets in the Great Recession. "The biggest thing we love about this is the size of the units. They're like multimillion-dollar custom homes."When Southwest Securities foreclosed, only three of the units were sold. Southwest Securities sold two units and is holding onto one unit, leaving 17, according to deed records.Mortgages on condos have been hard to get in the wake of the housing market crisis, but Villa De Leon buyers will be able to finance with OmniAmerican Bank in Fort Worth, Taliento said.Patten began its niche in 2009 and is now one of the largest buyers and sellers of condos in the U.S., the company said.Villa De Leon's developers still face a lawsuit in state district court in Tarrant County by Southwest Securities, which sued seeking $4.2 million. The developers owed $12.6 million on a $15.6 million note, but the bank made a credit bid of $8.4 million in the foreclosure sale and wants to recover the difference, according to the suit.The developers are arguing that the bid was grossly under value and that an appraisal by Southwest Securities six months before the foreclosure sale placed the property's value at $12.1 million, court records said.Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727Twitter: @SandraBakerFWSTHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
