BB&T buys Clipper Mill parcels 

Posted: 7:43 pm Thu, December 17, 2009
By Robbie Whelan
Daily Record Business Writer

BB&T Bank has taken possession of two sizeable portions of Clipper Mill, a large, mixed-use redevelopment project near the Jones Falls in Baltimore that went into default this year after failing to find permanent financing.

No representatives of Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, which built the $60 million project, were present on the steps of the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse Thursday morning as BB&T, the lender on the foreclosed project, bought the properties for a total of $2.425 million.

About 45 people, including developers, architects and potential home buyers at Clipper Mill had gathered to watch the two separate auctions, one of residential properties, and the other of one large commercial property.

A representative from BB&T, who declined to be identified, was the only bidder in the first auction, which dealt with two dozen plots that were part of the Overlook at Clipper Mill, a luxury green home project that abuts Druid Hill Park. The bank paid $2 million for these properties, which include nine uncompleted and unsold homes, six foundations and 12 empty lots on about 2.5 acres of land.

The second auction, which dealt with the Tractor Building, a 42,000-square-foot warehouse currently used for parking, saw a brief bidding war between BB&T representatives and Wendy Rowden, managing director of the Jonathan Rose Cos., the New York-based company that owns a 50 percent stake in the Clipper Mill project.

BB&T bid $425,000 for the property, and when auctioneer Paul Cooper of Towson-based Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc., asked for a bid of $450,000, Rowden, who had her cell phone to her ear, shook her head and mouthed the word “No.”

With control of the Clipper Mill properties, the bank can market and sell them to a new buyer. After the auction, Rowden said her company was interested in buying the Tractor Building and an adjacent undeveloped lot to continue to use as parking.

“The ball is in the bank’s court,” she said.

A representative from BB&T did not make the bank’s Baltimore managers available for comment.

Struever President C. William “Bill” Struever was not at the auction.

Architect Ed Hord, whose firm, Hord Coplan Macht had been contracted by Struever Bros. to redesign the warehouse as commercial space, was there. His firm filed a mechanic’s lien against Struever in March for about $300,000 in unpaid fees.

“Bill’s a great guy. He just got involved in too many different things,” Hord said. “I think he tried very hard to make [Clipper Mill] work.”

BB&T filed foreclosure actions against Struever in early November after the developer defaulted on about $5 million in mortgage debt. About $3.8 million of that is owed to BB&T.

Last month, Struever said that he had planned to build apartments, offices and parking in the Tractor Building, but the project failed to attract financing, and he failed to pay back a $1.25 million bridge loan to BB&T.

The residential component of Clipper Mill, known as the Overlook Homes, has been slow to sell. Of 38 planned units, only 11 have been built and sold, with prices ranging from $541,000 to $761,000.The homes are built to the LEED-Silver green building certification and have won awards for environmental design.