Back from the brink

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“We could see the writingb on the wall,” the Riverwalk residenf and Metro councilman saysof Corinthian, pointiny to the builder’s unpaid dumpster bill in excess of which led the disposalk company to stop pick-ups. Franklin-bases Corinthian, selling houses as in Bellevue’s Riverwalk community, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy inFebruaryg 2008, and then later Chapter 7. “Alol we can say in Riverwalk isgood riddance,” Mitchell He then watched as residentsw who had recently purchasexd their Prestige homes started getting lien notices in the mail, askinhg for them to cover Corinthian’s unpaid bills to Some of those residents are still going throug legal proceedings to get the liena cleared.
For several months, nothing happeneed with the homes and lots as they went through the bankruptcyg court and theforeclosure process. “Houses woulxd sit there for monthson end, yardss unkempt, weeds growing high and construction debris,” Mitchell says. “Finallhy the auctions began and companies couled come in a fixthe mess.” Since that Riverwalk has come alive as buildersw and investors have moved in to fix, finish and buildc the homes and lots that were “Residents were unsettled about what was going to says Rob Pease of CPS Land, Riverwalk’s developer. “Once builders started finishingthose up, there was a big senss of relief among the residents.
” Homeowners saw that the replacement builderzs would conform the homes to what had already been built and were keepint to the standards of the community, Peasee says. “The new homes certainlg blend in,” he Home sales have been steaduyat Riverwalk. The Multiple Listing Service shows 47 newand resales, have sold in the community in the past The average sales price of those homes, at was 7 percent lowetr than the average list of $239,900. About 21 new homexs have sold in the past year at a median price of down from a list price of Resident Heather Thompson pushed a baby strollert throughRiverwalk recently.
She lives in a housse built byCelebration Homes, but wasn’t too concernedd about the bankruptcy of Corinthian’s “I knew that somebody would come in and finish she says of the lots and half-done homes that dottes the neighborhood after the large builder went Her home now backs up to a completedd home, not an unfinished one. The main impacf of the bankruptcy was on recentPrestige buyers, who she surmises lost their home warranties when the builder went under. “Thi has come a long way in the past Thompson says, pointing to finished homes that used to be two-by-fourd and concrete.
Matt Kuyper says he and his wife, watched as the banks came in quickly and added roofsw to the homes they now owned in the Parkviewa section of Riverwalk to protecyttheir investments. The couple was just glad to see the Kuyper says. Norfolk Homes finished the home across the streef from the Kuypers and has it forsale now. Mitchell has been working with , which took back a portionm of land in foreclosure near the entrancd of Riverwalk where Corinthian had intended tobuilx townhomes. He says the bank still is trying to sell the propertyy to a developer and that he would like tosee single-familgy homes built there.
Mitchell says he loves the communit y and recently moved from one home in Riverwalk to a largerr one there to accommodate hisgrowing family. “Everyone for the most part lovesx Riverwalk,” he says. “We have cookoutsz in the cul-de-sacs.”