Clock is ticking for SilverTip developer

2011-06-23 / Front Page

By Erik Skindrud

GAZETTE REPORTER

Investors who have struggled for close to 10 years to develop the SilverTip Resort were racing to jump another hurdle this week—foreclosure proceedings against the 44-acre property at Fish Camp.

If no arrangement is reached regarding a $5.6 million outstanding loan balance that helped buy the property, draw plans and navigate the permit process, the property could be sold at auction at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 15 at the county Courthouse on Bullion Street.

A legal notice to that effect appears on page B-7 of today’s GAZETTE.

Developer PacificUS Real Estate Group of Pasadena said all options are on the table, including Chapter 11 bankruptcy status, to allow the group to hold on to the property.

“Every attempt (is being) made to resolve the matter amicably, but PacificUS will, if necessary, use all legal remedies at its disposal to retain and develop the SilverTip Resort property,” group president and CEO Paul J. Giuntini told the GAZETTE.

An architectural rendering shows the SilverTip project’s main building. The structure is planned to include 137 rooms and cover more than 112,000 square feet. SilverTip Resort Village, LLC | Contributed OneWest Bank, also of Pasadena, filed a notice of default against PacificUS back in September.

County records show that the project’s main parcel, making up 42 acres of the total, was valued at $1.6 million earlier this year.

Given the turmoil in real estate markets over the past two years, PacificUS may have paid significantly more for the property when it purchased it.

Following a lawsuit filed by Fish Camp neighbors in 2003, PacificUS gained county approval for the project. Construction is planned to begin in the spring of 2012, PacificUS spokesman David Giuntini said this week.

Sarah Williams, the county’s deputy planning director, said PacificUS continues to work closely with county staff to meet the spring construction goal.

“(They’ve) been working diligently away on their (permits),” she said. “I talk to them every week.”

There is no county requirement for developers to inform local officials about the status of loans, Williams said.

PacificUS is linked to a company called SilverTip Resort Village, LLC that is directly assigned to the project.

If new owners took over the property, the existing county approvals would remain and construction, presumably, would proceed at some point in the future.

If completed, SilverTip Resort would include a 137-room main hotel building, 30 multi-room chateaus, conference facilities and a mixed-use retail and apartment building.

A completed resort would boost the county’s Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT)—the No. 1 source of revenue for the county. In 2009, the county received more than $10 million in TOT hotel tax from Yosemite’s Ahwahnee and other county lodgings.

PacificUS spokesman David J. Guintini called the foreclosure a “speedbump” and said “it should be resolved within the next two weeks.”

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Speed bump indeed! PacificUS

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2011-07-15 22:21.

Speed bump indeed! PacificUS Real Estate Group, the developer of the proposed Silvertip Resort and Hotel in Fish Camp, filed for bankruptcy on July 14, 2011. There was to have been a foreclosure auction of the property on the Mariposa County Courthouse steps at 10:00 AM on Friday July 15th. The group of Fish Camp residents present to see who the buyer might be were met by mortgage trustee with the announcement that the auction was cancelled “due to bankruptcy.” At this time, the auction is re-scheduled for August 18th. The bankruptcy announcement can be seen at http://www.trollerbk.com/bankruptcy_case/PACIFICUS_REAL_ESTATE_GROUP

There are considerable

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2011-06-25 00:06.

There are considerable hurdles for any developer to bring the Silvertip project to fruition as it is presently conceived. Not least is the flood plain. The previous owner reconfigured Big Creek away from the meadow where major resort facilities are planned, and that is still subject to flooding (as in 1997). Moving dirt around to protect the resort would just push flood waters onto the residences on the other side, to the west of Highway 41. Then there is the access problem from Highway 41, still not resolved with Cal-Trans. Then there are the unresolved easements across the land, that the developer PacificUS has refused to address with the owners. It is pretty clear from these problems that the property is not worth the $5.6 million the bank is owed. (May one guess that the developer PacificUS used the property as a cash cow, taking money out to pay for other projects?) It would sure be good for the community of Fish Camp if a responsible developer bought this property and developed it more in keeping with the original Fish Camp Specific Plan.