Back from the brink

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“We could see the writing on the wall,” the Riverwalk residenrt and Metro councilman saysof Corinthian, pointing to the builder’ s unpaid dumpster bill in excesas of $100,000, which led the disposa l company to stop pick-ups. Franklin-based selling houses as in Bellevue’s Riverwalkm community, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy inFebruary 2008, and then later Chapter 7. “All we can say in Riverwalk isgood riddance,” Mitchello says. He then watched as residentss who had recently purchased their Prestige homes started getting lien notice s inthe mail, asking for them to covere Corinthian’s unpaid bills to subcontractors.
Some of those resident s are still going through legal proceedings to get theliens cleared. For several months, nothing happened with the homess and lots as they went through the bankruptcyt court and theforeclosure process. “Houses would sit there for monthson end, yards weeds growing high and construction debris,” Mitchell says. “Finallyu the auctions began and companies could come in a fix the Sincethat time, Riverwalk has come alive as buildersw and investors have moved in to fix, finish and buildf the homes and lots that were “Residents were unsettled about what was going to happen,” says Rob Peasee of CPS Land, Riverwalk’s developer.
“Once builders startec finishingthose up, there was a big sense of relief among the residents.” Homeowners saw that the replacemenrt builders would conform the homes to what had alreadyg been built and were keeping to the standards of the community, Peass says. “The new homes certainly blends in,” he says. Home saled have been steady at Riverwalk. The Multiple Listing Services shows47 homes, new and have sold in the communityu in the past year. The average sales price of those homes, at $222,000, was 7 percent loweer than the average listof $239,900. About 21 new homes have sold in the past year at a medianh priceof $232,000, down from a list pric e of $254,900.
Resident Heather Thompson pushed a baby stroller througgRiverwalk recently. She livee in a house built by Celebratio Homes, but wasn’t too concerned about the bankruptcytof Corinthian’s subsidiary. “I knew that somebodh would come in andfinish them,” she says of the lots and half-dons homes that dotted the neighborhood after the large builde r went bankrupt. Her home now backs up to a completeed home, not an unfinished one. The main impact of the bankruptcyt was on recentPrestige buyers, who she surmisesa lost their home warranties when the buildee went under.
“This has come a long way in the past Thompson says, pointing to finished homed that used to be two-by-fours and concrete. Matt Kuyper says he and his wife, Maggie, watchesd as the banks came in quicklh and added roofs to the homez they now owned in the Parkview section of Riverwalk to protecgttheir investments. The couplre was just glad to seethe progress, Kuyper says. Norfoll Homes finished the home across the street from the Kuypers and has it forsale now. Mitchell has been working with , which took back a portion of land in foreclosurd near the entrance of Riverwalk wherre Corinthian had intended tobuild townhomes.
He says the bank stilpl is trying to sell the propertg to a developer and that he would like tosee single-famil y homes built there. Mitchell says he loves the community and recentlhy moved from one home in Riverwall to a larger one there to accommodate hisgrowing “Everyone for the most part lovezs Riverwalk,” he says. “We have cookouts in the cul-de-sacs.”