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More troubles for City in the Hills developer
| Sunday, Sep 7 2008 6:59 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Sep 8 2008 8:36 AM
More financial and legal troubles have hit the master developer of northeast Bakersfield’s City in the Hills community, Los Angeles-based Mountain View Bravo LLC, records show.
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The developer, through several subsidiaries, has already defaulted on four loans borrowed against Kern County properties since July.
• A new default was filed last month against subsidiary Baker’s Hill LLC.
A patch of undeveloped land in northeast Bakersfield totaling almost a square mile served as collateral for a $4 million loan made in 2006 by Westminster Capital Inc. of Beverly Hills.
The property, south of Kern Canyon Road on the east side of Vineland Road, was once being planned as a major residential project called Watermark, city planning staffers said. The project fizzled when the market soured.
Separately, the site is involved in an ongoing lawsuit filed by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. against the developer.
Chevron alleges a former employee hired as a consultant was secretly in cahoots with the developer to get some of Chevron’s old land at prices far below market value.
The developer is also known as S.K.Y. Management LLC and other names.
• A lawsuit has been filed by a company that bought one of the developer’s now-defaulted loans.
That company, Global Investment & Development LLC of Los Angeles, in June took over from Indymac Bank what remained of a $49.5 million construction loan for the Juliana’s Garden neighborhood in City in the Hills. The loan defaulted in July.
A subsidiary of Global Investment, Juliana’s Garden LLC, filed a real estate lawsuit against one of the developer’s subsidiaries, MVB Ventures LLC, shortly before the loan defaulted.
Separately, Global Investment in July bought 20 acres slated for 84 homes near Highway 178 and Comanche Drive at a fire-sale price from national homebuilder KB Home.