Town Green Village faces new loan challenges even as some prospects improve

[caption id="attachment_30162" align="alignright" width="448" caption="Town Green Village is in escrow to sell this partly built building and one other to a nonprofit developer for low-income senior housing. A completed building on Johnson Street with one of the loans newly in default is in the background. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)"][/caption]

WINDSOR -- As the developers of the 14-acre Town Green Village mixed-use community in central Windsor work to finalize a deal to sell two buildings left partly built because of the economy and complete a workout of $15 million in loans, they are facing a new round of default notices totaling $1.54 million in due balances on a half-dozen properties.

Notices of default were filed in early February on behalf of Napa Community Bank, now part of Rabobank, for two loans to Town Green Village LP and three loans to managing partner Orrin Thiessen. Most of the properties were on Johnson Street in the newest finished buildings.

"We had some vacant units and we quit making payments on them," Mr. Thiessen said, declining to comment on that further.

[caption id="attachment_30161" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Town Green Village is in escrow to sell this partly built building and one other to a nonprofit developer for low-income senior housing. (Jeff Quackenbush photo)"][/caption]

Meanwhile, Town Green Village is in escrow with nonprofit developer PEP Housing to buy what would have been buildings R and S in the development, according to Mr. Thiessen. The collapse in housing prices halted construction with $4.5 million already spent on land, entitlements and initial construction such as concrete and some structural steel.

Town Green Village is in default on those properties, too, but lender North Valley Bank has worked with the developer to sell enough properties in Windsor and Cotati to work down $15 million in loans to $2 million and accept a short sale to PEP for $1 million.

An initial request for redevelopment funds to make the purchase happen was presented at the Feb. 16 Town Council meeting. The matter could be coming back to the council in early April.

In a positive trend for the development, retail prospects for Town Green Village are brightening. After six months of little retail or office leasing interest, there are more existing and new businesses actively pursuing space in the ground-floor spaces nearest the Town Green as well as facing the railroad tracks, according to Mr. Thiessen. The recent opening of Multi-Contact's new offices in the former Windsor Vineyards building on the east side of the Town Green already has made cash registers start ringing at restaurants and shops in the development, not only from employees but also visiting trainees.

And a proposal for a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store farther east from the Town Green is set to be submitted to the town in a few weeks, according to Mr. Thiessen, who is a consultant to the Southern California-based chain. Several years ago, he campaigned to bring the grocer to the development as a much-needed anchor, but the three-story mixed-use building design requirement was a sticking point. Now, a freestanding store as high as two stories is being refined for the proposed project.

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