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http://www.ocbj.com/news/2010/aug/29/loan-issue-freezes-construction-pelican-hill-estat/

Loan Issue Freezes Construction on Pelican Hill Estate

Villa del Lago: 90%-plus done, $57 million asking price
By Mark Mueller

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The developer of Orange County’s most expensive home says the project is marketable and drawing interest from prospective buyers, despite funding issues that have halted construction.

Villa del Lago, a 12.5-acre estate being built in Newport Coast, is being marketed for $57 million, making it by far the most expensive home currently for sale in OC.

But for the past month, construction largely has stopped at the sprawling Pelican Crest home because of financial issues.

Villa del Lago still needs a substantial amount of landscaping work done, among other projects, according to observers.

There are no plans to resume work any time soon, said agent John McMonigle, who is listing the property and whose development company, Monarch Estates, is handling construction.

“I’m not sure we’ll do much more,” said McMonigle, whose Newport Beach-based McMonigle Group is one of the country’s top brokerages for pricey homes.

Villa del Lago—with an 18,000-square-foot Tuscan-styled mansion, equestrian facilities and its own lake—is at least 90% done, according to McMonigle. That includes a majority of the main home’s interior, he said.

That’s far enough along to make the estate marketable, he said. He said he’s been giving tours to prospective buyers in recent weeks.

If a buyer is found, work will start again, according to McMonigle. It likely would take four to six months to get the estate in good enough shape for an owner to move in, he said.

If a buyer wanted to add additional features, such as expanded horse stables, it could take more than a year’s worth of work to get everything done, McMonigle said.

Loan Issue

Funding issues are behind the halt in work.

The project initially was funded by a loan from La Jolla Bank FSB. When that bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in February, the developer’s access to construction financing froze up, he said.

The investment group that’s leading development of the property, a Newport Beach-based entity called One Pelican Hill Road North LP, had been funding the last batch of construction work on its own with a goal of getting the property to a marketable condition.

“We’ve funded millions out of our own pocket,” McMonigle said.

Lining up construction loans for new, high-end homes “is the hardest thing to do” right now, McMonigle said. It’s been that way for more than a year, he said.

In the case of La Jolla Bank, the developer of Villa del Lago is in the same boat as a number of other builders that had construction loans there, according to other area brokers.

“Everyone who had a loan with them had the rug pulled out” when the bank—now part of Pasadena’s OneWest Bank FSB—went into receivership this year, said Rob Giem, a broker of high-end coastal homes for Newport Beach’s Hom Real Estate Group.

Villa del Lago isn’t looking for additional investors at this point, McMonigle said.

“We’re pretty much finished” in terms of spending money on construction, he said.

One Claim

Other than one local construction company’s claim that about $7,400 in bills hasn’t been paid since April, there are no court records of the project being in any financial distress.

When the property officially was put on the market in May, an August completion date was targeted by the developer.

The delay in finishing forced the cancellation of one big Orange County social event.

The estate was slated to be used for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s annual House of Design event in early October.

That event, which raises money for youth music education programs by offering paid tours of new, highly decorated high-end homes, recently was canceled.

The event typically raises nearly half a million dollars, said Sabra Bordas, chairman of the philharmonic society.

“It would have been a tremendous opportunity” for the estate’s developer to show off the finished property to prospective buyers, Bordas said.

The property “still needs a whole lot of work,” she said.

Pelican Crest

Villa del Lago’s in the Pelican Crest gated community, near Newport Coast’s Pelican Hill Resort. It has made plenty of news locally and nationally, due to its lofty price and over-the-top features.

The website for the project lists amenities including a pool pavilion, an underground garage with room to hold 17 cars, a three-quarter-acre lake, two-hole golf course and vineyards. There’s about 23,000 square feet of living space at the gated estate.

There are no plans to drop the price for Villa del Lago, despite the recent funding issues, McMonigle said.

“I hope (the price) is in the ballpark” for what the ultimate sales price is likely to be, he said.

At the time the project was announced, a placeholder asking price of $87 million was given to the estate. It was lowered once the property officially hit the market.

Record?

If its current $57 million price is met, the estate would be OC’s most expensive home sold by a wide margin.

The current most expensive home sale in OC is believed to be the $35 million sale of a Newport Bay mansion formerly owned by actor Nicolas Cage in 2008. That building’s back on the market, with an asking price of $31.8 million.

Another property listed by McMonigle, Corona del Mar’s Portobello estate, now counts an asking price slightly less than $50 million. It was originally listed at $75 million in 2006 but failed to find a buyer at that price.

The most expensive home believed to have sold in California this year was a 48,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion called Le Belvedere that reportedly traded hands for somewhere between $50 million and its $72 million asking price.

 

Interesting Story...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704530204576233170859101198.html?mod=e2tw#articleTabs%3Dslideshow


100 Million for this home!!!.... Way overpriced in my opinion!!.. but whatever makes him happy.

 

http://lansner.ocregister.com/2011/04/17/o-c-luxury-home-agent-files-for-bankruptcy/106933/

O.C. luxury home agent files for bankruptcy
April 17th, 2011, 6:53 pm · 65 Comments · posted by Jeff Collins
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McMonigle
Newport Beach real estate agent John McMonigle, who drew national attention selling some of Orange County’s most expensive mansions, announced Sunday that he has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Federal bankruptcy court records show that McMonigle filed bankruptcy as an individual on Friday.

In a brief statement distributed at 6 p.m. Sunday, McMonigle said:

“In a necessary move brought about by an ongoing stalemate with uncooperative lenders in an unrelated real estate development business, John McMonigle, founder and principal of Newport Beach-based luxury real estate firm, McMonigle Group Inc., has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

“We have worked hard with our lenders to try to restructure and work out this debt with little or no cooperation. The filing will allow us to maintain a laser-sharp focus on our real estate sales brokerage business, McMonigle Group Inc., which will continue normal operations.”

The lender, OneWest Bank, has declined in the past to comment on the case.

McMonigle, 46, didn’t provide details about the bankruptcy or why he filed for Chapter 7, in which all of a debtor’s assets are sold off to satisfy debts.

The court file lists McMonigle’s assets as ranging from $1 million to $10 million, but his liabilities range from $50 million to $100 million. The file lists the estimated number of creditors in the case as ranging from 200 to 999.

The news is the latest development in a series of setbacks that began when a lender cut off funds for a Newport Coast mansion McMonigle is building that once was priced as high as $87 million but now is being listed for $37 million.


The Villa del Lago mansion, built by McMonigle's Monarch Estates. The 12-acre mansion is listed for $37 million.
Lenders have filed default notices on four McMonigle properties, including the $37 million Villa del Lago mansion and the McMonigle Group headquarters building.The lender also has sought to have the court seize control of the mansion. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for June.

In an earlier court filing, McMonigle was quoted as telling a creditor that he and his development partners at Villa del Lago “had run out of money.”

In addition to Villa del Lago, McMonigle once sought $75 million for the Portabello Estate, a beach-front mansion in Corona del Mar. The home eventually sold, with the final price reportedly at $34.1 million.

The McMonigle Group made Coldwell Banker’s list of top U.S. sales teams for several years in a row based on the dollar value of the homes he sold. However, the group split from the real estate chain last year and formed an independent brokerage.