News

TIMELINE: The fall of Carriage Park

By Bill Moss, Published: June 10, 2016

Key events in the financial troubles of Carriage Park Associates.

Nov. 11, 2011: Developer Dale Hamlin, owner of Carriage Park Associates, borrows $9.7 million from Arendale Holdings Corp., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based real estate and golf course development company.

2015: Hamlin fails to pay taxes on 124 parcels of the development.

Sept. 15, 2015: Attorney Ervin Bazzles files a complaint attempting to enforce a mediation agreement under which Hamlin was to pay his client, Brenda Altschul, in a civil action she had brought. Hamlin had paid $46,603 and still owed $83,396.

Oct. 6, 2015: A magistrate orders Hamlin to pay contractor Thomas Jacobson and P.T. Green Construction a $5,000 builder damage deposit after the contractor completed work on a house on Preserve Court.

Oct. 26, 2015: Hamlin signs a “confession of judgment” admitting that he owes prospective buyers Claude and Susan Sykes $6,000 in earnest money.

Feb. 11, 2016: A Superior Court judge grants Arendale’s motion appointing a receiver to protect the Carriage Park assets.

March 7: After a hearing Henderson County Clerk of Superior Court enters a foreclosure order on the Carriage Park property that Hamlin put up as collateral for the $9.7 million promissory note. A foreclosure sale was set for April 8.

March 31: Arendale pays $63,723 in delinquent property taxes to prevent Henderson County from starting a tax foreclosure proceeding.

April 7: Hamlin files a petition for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, declaring indebtedness of $13.6 million. His attorney, Trade Elkins, notifies Henderson County clerk’s office of the filing at 4:57 p.m. on the eve of the foreclosure sale.

April 13: Arendale files a motion in bankruptcy court seeking to have the Chapter 11 petition thrown out on the grounds that it was filed merely to block foreclosure.

May 12: A Superior Court judge enters a default judgment of $31,200 in a lawsuit brought by prospective homebuyer Cheryl Grace, who made a $10,400 earnest money deposit Hamlin refused to return.

May 27: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges grants Arendale’s motion to dismiss Hamlin’s bankruptcy petition, ruling that the petition had satisfied the court’s two-pronged standard for such a dismissal — “objective futility” of reorganization and “subjective bad faith.”