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Another Wasco default
| Wednesday, May 28 2008 5:56 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 29 2008 7:08 AM
A default notice recorded against the developer of a Wasco tract Wednesday is the second in that city to hit a subdivision with homeowners.
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The Las Rosas neighborhood being built at the northwest corners of Palm and Filburn avenues south of Highway 46 has about 60 finished homes, said Richard Heller, president of Heller Development Co. in Tarzana.
More than a dozen have been sold to homebuyers, property records indicate.
Wednesday’s default notice says the homebuilder owes Indymac Bank more than $11 million as of May 21. The original $24.1 million construction loan was taken out in July 2006.
Heller said he has been in talks with the bank and has “every intention” of making good on the loan.
“With the help of our lenders, we’ll get through it,” Heller said of the rough market facing residential developers.
County records show several contractors have filed liens alleging nonpayment for construction work at the Las Rosas site.
Another Wasco neighborhood with homeowners, Hidden Grove, has been affected by financial troubles of Sacramento homebuilder Reynen & Bardis Communities Inc. About a half-dozen families live in the eight completed houses in that subdivision, where work stopped last year.
In Tehachapi, the April bankruptcy filing of Ontario-based Empire Land LLC has residents of the partially finished Alta Estates neighborhood worried about home warranties and other issues.
A rash of defaults and foreclosures hit developers in metropolitan Bakersfield and other Kern cities in recent months, but most haven’t affected developments with homeowners.
The first phase of the Las Rosas tract will hold 95 lots at full buildout, tract maps show.
Two more phases, which haven’t been recorded, would stretch west to Central Avenue.
Heller Development was incorporated in 1989, state business records show.
The company’s Web site says it has projects in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties as well as Nevada and Arizona.