In an op-ed published today in the Huffington Post, Halsey Minor took his Landmark Hotel plight national.
In “Why I Fight,” Minor spills about the failure of the bank that financed the project, the takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and his current legal woes.
“I am sure you would expect that the FDIC’s priority would be to maximize the value of the asset for the public by working with me to wrap up the problem caused by the failed bank,” he writes.
“We could have put more than 100 people back to work, injected millions of dollars into the Charlottesville economy and finished a half-built structure that now stands as a nine-story testament to hard times.”
Minor heaps blame on Claire Cotter, who is managing his project for the FDIC.
“She immediately went to work to protect the balance sheets of the eight lending banks by wasting millions of taxpayer dollars continuing to fight Silverton’s misguided legal battle, all so these banks don’t have to write down my loan. (I’ve already won arbitration against the bank’s developer on the project; I face the FDIC in October.) Between the government and me, roughly $10 million already has been spent in legal fees on a dispute over a $10.3 million loan.”
Calls to the FDIC were not immediately returned.
To read the complete piece, click here. For a timeline on the Landmark Hotel, click here.