Landmark Hotel

Chapter 11 Filed For Halsey Minor's Landmark Hotel

More bad news for CNET founder Halsey Minor. We've been watching as he has divested himself of some of his art and real estate and now his long-stalled Landmark Hotel project in Charlottesville, Virginia is in major trouble. Minor Family Hotels, LLC, the official owner of the hotel, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court.

Minor made around $100 million from the sale of his technology company CNET in 2000 but he has spent quite a bit since then. In 2006 he bought a home in the Bel Air area for $20 million. In 2008 he put the home on the market for just $12.9 million and rumors were that much of the home was in disrepair. He eventually cut down the price to $11.4 million. It appears to be still owned by Minor and is not on the market. In 2007 he bought the Koshland mansion in San Francisco, an eight-bedroom mansion built to resemble Marie Antoinette's Le Petit Trianon and was reported to be spending $15 million to fix it up. Fox Ridge Farm, his 205-acre farm near Charlottesville, Virginia faced foreclosure twice but Minor eventually brought the mortgage current avoiding a second public auction in February 2010. The stalled Landmark Hotel project has remained in a state of partial construction for years.

In a press release Minor Family Hotels stated that it filed Chapter 11 "in order to more quickly resolve the burdensome lawsuits that have prevented it from completing construction and putting people back to work." Minor is fighting off a total of eight lawsuits involving the Landmark Hotel, in Georgia and Virginia courts. In the release, Minor says that he remains committed to seeing the project through.

A trial involving Minor, former Landmark developer Lee Danielson, the FDIC and Specialty Finance Group, the real estate financing company that was supposed to lend Minor $23.6 million for the construction of the hotel in 2008 was scheduled for November. Specialty Finance Group's parent company, Atlanta-based Silverton Bank failed in May of last year and was taken over by the FDIC. The Chapter 11 filing means that the trial is on hold. The loan for the Landmark is divided among multiple banks. Documents in the bankruptcy suit show 20 creditors. Some have criticized the Chapter 11 filing as just a stalling tactic and question whether the 100-room boutique hotel project will ever be completed.

Tags: chapter 11, chapter 11 bankruptcy, charlotte, Charlottesville, halsey minor, landmark hotel

Halsey Minor's Art Needs A New Home

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art, Wealth

When you buy a lot of art you also have a lot of bills, especially if you don't bother to pay up. The case of Halsey Minor, the CNET founder and major art spender is fascinating. Some of Minor's most prized pieces from his collection of contemporary art will be sold by Phillips de Pury in New York in May and June of this year.

As Bloomberg reports, the sale is the fallout from a judgement last year on a case brought by ML Private Finance (part of Merryl Lynch). Minor had borrowed $25 million from ML Private Finance in 2007 putting his art up as collateral. Last year ML Private Finance was awarded $21.6 million and the court recently appointed Phillips to sell the art. Phillips has promised to pay ML Finance within 24 hours of receiving payment. The prime collection includes Marc Newson's Lockheed Lounge, shown above, which could fetch $1 million to $1.5 million and one of Richard Prince's nurse paintings, "Nurse in Hollywood#4" which is estimated at between $5 and $7 million.

Tags: art, cnet, halsey minor, landmark hotel, lockheed lounge, phillips de pury

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Saudi Prince Strangles Servant in London Luxury Hotel

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors

It's hard to get good help these days - especially if you keep killing them. A man claiming to be a member of the Saudi royal family has been arrested on suspicion of murder after one of his servants was found strangled at a palatial London luxury hotel, the London Daily Mail reports. Police were called to the five-star Landmark Hotel in Marylebone (above) after a maid found the body of a 32-year-old Saudi Arabian man in one of the poshest suites. The victim, believed to be part of the as-yet-unnamed royal's entourage, had been strangled and suffered severe head injuries in the attack. The 33-year-old prime suspect informed authorities that he is a prince of the Saudi royal family who had apparently been living the high life at the hotel for the past month. Rooms at the Landmark, built in 1899, cost up to £2,400 per night for the presidential suite. Rocker Liam Gallagher, Justin Timberlake and Formula One champ Lewis Hamilton are among its celebrity clientele. Michelle Obama also held a fundraising event for her husband there in 2007. Officials have said the prince does not have diplomatic immunity; the Saudi embassy has refused to comment.