Renaissance Homes, one of Oregon’s biggest home builders, will soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, The Oregonian is reporting.
The company expects to file for bankruptcy in the coming week, according to The Oregonian: “Slow sales have made it impossible for the Lake Oswego company to remain current on any of its $85 million in bank loans, company officials said.
“Renaissance will be the third prominent metro-area home builder to file Chapter 11 since May. Though some in the housing industry initially insisted that the real estate bust would spare Portland due to in-migration and other factors, it now appears that the shrinking home values and stalled sales that hit much of the rest of the country in 2006 and 2007 were simply late in arriving here.”
Renaissance Homes has built or is in the process of building projects all over Oregon and Washington, including Fremont Place, Shevlin Pines and Renaissance Ridge in Bend.
Unlike a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which a company ceases operations and sells off all its assets to repay its creditors, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not a death sentence. Under Chapter 11 the bankrupt corporation typically proposes a reorganization plan to keep the business alive and a program to repay the creditors over time. But in the midst of the current global financial crisis it could be tough for Renaissance to line up new money and stay afloat.
“Randy Sebastian, the company’s CEO and founder, who appears in many of its ads, vowed that Renaissance will survive its brush with insolvency. It has worked out tentative financing arrangements with five banks,” The Oregonian said.
But Sebastian has sung that tune before. In March 2007 KeyBank started foreclosure proceedings against Aspen Landing LLC, a holding company for Renaissance Homes, saying it was owed $13.1 million on Renaissance Ridge. In May, Sebastian said he had lined up new financing and was able to pay the debt and avoid foreclosure.
In recent months, The Bulletin’s “News of Record” section has reported a number of civil suits against Renaissance by suppliers and subcontractors. However, Bend’s local paper has not yet reported on the impending bankruptcy.
In early August, in a story headlined “3 builders, though hard-hit, remain optimistic,” The Bulletin quoted Sebastian as saying his company was “muscling through” the downtown, although it had been forced to lay off half of its staff and its home sales had dropped by one-third.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
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Sorry, Randy. You looked soooooo self assured. You were toooooooo self assured.
This guy sure came in strong to the Bend area…very pumped up and quite full of himself, this is a very good time for him to make an inventory of his life, how he treats people and presents himself and his money, or lack thereof. The taxpayers pay for it in the end.
Greed? Yeah maybe. Or maybe just lack of foresight. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
It’s funny (not ha ha cause this kind of thing effects people’s lives) thinking about all those pictures of Randy grinning ear to eat with his silly black mock turtleneck holding all those awards for most pompous asshole snooty builder. That one gated community in Elk Meadows that he battled over really showed who he was in my book. What a bunch of whining he did about how gates sell homes and all the other guys can do gates and Boo Hoo! My mommy said I could have my gates!!! Waaaaaaa!!!!!!!!
A shiny veneer and shit-eating grin only goes so far, dude.
The Bulletin got around to reporting this story today.
Unethical, dishonest practices and a long history of being a bully. No wonder he is done? Wow…..
How is it that when the economy is good, these developers are “visionaries” yet when things get tough, all of the sudden they are pompous asses with no forsight? They got off their asses and made things happen and employed HUNDREDS of people. Lay off you liberal, business hating whiners!
jb has it right on. renaissance and other homebuilders employed hunderds of workers and made the economy here work. now hard times hit the rainmakers and the whiners are celebrating.