Last edited 3:04 p.m., Aug. 13, 2013Developer Stephen Cope has saved the struggling 200-acre residential and commercial development dubbed Jamestown before. But he’ll have to act quickly if he wants to save it again. If he doesn’t, the expansive mixed-use Rogersville property could be an opportunity for other area developers.
On Aug. 15, Jamestown is scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure sale on the Greene County Courthouse steps. Following the foreclosure sale, a tax sale is scheduled for the property on Aug. 26.
In an Aug. 7 phone interview, Greene County Administrator Tim Smith said Cope or another party would need to pay what Jamestown LLC owes in property taxes before Aug. 26 in order to prevent the tax sale. According to
attorney Lee Viorel
of Lowther Johnson Attorneys at Law LLC, who represents Greene County, the development company Cope established and is president of owes the county more than $1.1 million in back taxes. On Aug. 13, Viorel said the tax debt sticks with the property, and potential buyers at the Aug. 15 auction would need to be prepared to pay the county's tax debt to avoid the property being resold 11 days later.
Calls and emails to Cope this week were not returned as of press time on Aug. 9.
In April, Cope attempted to auction the development property online through Auction.com.
The final bid for the property Cope said he had invested roughly $4 million in was $3.35 million on April 25. On April 24, he said he held the right to decline bids below a predetermined threshold, but it wasn’t clear if the high bid hit his reserve price to trigger the transaction.
Brock Harris, a contact for Auction.com at the time of the spring auction, did not return requests for comment as of Aug. 9, and a customer service representative with Auction.com, who did not identify herself, said she did not have access to transactions in April. Greene County assessor’s records continue to list Jamestown LLC as the owner of the development.
In March, Cope said he was not giving up on the development, and was still seeking a big-box anchor tenant. In April, Cope said he had been in negotiations with the county to find ways to satisfy or delay the amount due to prevent a tax sale. He also said he had two potential buyers in line to cover the tax bill.
The tax debt came about following the developer’s use of Neighborhood Improvement District funds, which allowed development of the infrastructure for the largely vacant project. NIDs are designed to be paid back by increasing property taxes as the subdivision fills up.
Jamestown, which includes a 27,340-square-foot shopping center fronting U.S. Highway 60, 104 residential lots and 51 commercial lots, entered a May 2010 bankruptcy filing one day before a scheduled foreclosure sale. Later that year, however, court records show the bankruptcy was dismissed in September 2010. Cope said in June 2011 he had received financing to pay off his debts on the property from a lender he declined to name. However, as of March, only five commercial lots were built in the subdivision, and 42 were still available.
For its part, the county is not planning on using the speculative financing structure in the future, according to Smith.
