Exploring East Square’s Financial Hole
by February 4, 2013 12:00 am 82 views
Of nearly $4.26 million that Fayetteville businessman Richard Alexander’s East Square Development Co. LLC owes creditors, about $3.96 million is owed to the company that backed its ill-fated attempt to build a high-rise hotel in downtown Fayetteville.
Little Rock-based Heartland Renaissance Fund LLC provides capital for a wide range of projects, including commercial real estate, expansion of an existing business and large-scale new business ventures.
ESDC, formed in 2004 by Alexander and John Nock, was the company behind the failed Renaissance Tower Hotel project at Mountain Street and College Avenue.
That project’s demise left a huge hole in the ground that was the butt of jokes for about a year until, under pressure from the city, the developers filled it and turned the land into a parking lot.
ESDC filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 6 under Chapter 11, which allows troubled companies to restructure their debt. Alexander filed the schedule of assets and liabilities last month.
The filing shows the company has assets of $4.2 million in real estate. Besides the debt to Heartland, ESDC owes $300,000 to CDI Contractors LLC and an unspecified amount to Washington County tax collector David A. Ruff.
Another Alexander company, Markham Hill Development Co. LLC, remains in Chapter 11 reorganization. He and Robert Merry-Ship formed that company in 2002 to develop properties on Rupple Road in Fayetteville. The bankruptcy petition, filed Feb. 3, 2011, included Nock, Jennifer Alexander and Kathy Merry-Ship as co-debtors.