Remember when Hunter Craig sold Biscuit Run to the state for $9.8M and the hope of tax credits, in order to get rid of that albatross in a terrible economy? And then The Hook figured out that it was turning into a boondoggle, with Craig trying to get state tax credits (which is as good as cash) on an $87.7M appraisal for land that he bought at the height of the bubble for $46.2M? Well, it gets boondogglier. Craig and his associates are suing the state for another $19.48M, Hawes Spencer reports, since they’re not happy with the $21.48M that they’ve already gotten for the land. Why? Because they’re still $25M in the hole, with a lot of that probably owed in the form of monthly loan payments. If that’s a thirty-year note at 5% interest, then Hunter Craig and partner (and father-in-law) Wick McNeely have to come up with $134k/month. (Just this year, McNeely has sold Burning Daylight Farm, his Nova Scotia mansion, put his Garth Road home on the market, and ended his Farmington membership.)
I’m something like $100k underwater on my mortgage. Here I was thinking that it was my duty to suck it up and live with, because it’s nobody’s fault but my own. Maybe that attitude is what’s keeping me from being a successful businessman.
Got Schadenfreude?
After reading the story I have to admit I do. Those additional tax write offs that Hunter Craig is suing for are corporate welfare and should be denied
Wow, that last paragraph is a zinger.
[…] Biscuit Run – The flip that flopped: Biscuit Run men want $20 million more from taxpayers and Waldo at cvillenews notes succinctly states: I’m something like $100k underwater on my mortgage. Here I was thinking that it was my duty to […]
Wick McNeely sold Chapel Springs Farm, which has been through three owners since it was formerly known as Burning Daylight Farm. McNeely has no ownership interest in Burning Daylight Farm now, nor did he ever.
Let’s see: a wealthy banker made a bad deal and is using his political connections to make a profit on the backs of the taxpayers. Sounds like a poster child for the 1%. Also: I’m shocked!
I had no idea its name had changed. I’d have been calling it Burning Daylight Farm for the next thirty years if you hadn’t said something. :) I’ve updated the blog entry to refer to it by both names. Thanks for that correction, Jay.
For the record, I’ve been acquainted with Hunter Craig since he first opened Virginia National Bank (of which I’m a big fan), and Wick McNeely a handful of times in the past fifteen years or so, and I think they’re both nice guys who have done a lot of good in Charlottesville. That does not, of course, mean that I like everything that they do, and this whole Biscuit Run situation is no exception.
I am sure these are good guys from what I have heard, but this lawsuit is an act of pure greed for which they will be remembered. If they truly care about their community they will withdraw this suit and take the hard knocks as you have Waldo.
That’s called being a grown-up.
The wealthy have recourse to protecting their wealth that the other 99% do not. It is time for tax policies to reflect the public good and not the good of the few.
Think of it this way – instead of giving to the poor how about not taking from them ?
Craig’s is not an act of greed but, rather, and act of desperation. He owes money that he can not pay back.
Waldo spent so much time designing his home I suspect he will be above water on it when he decides to sell it down the road.
Craig’s is not an act of greed but, rather, and act of desperation. He owes money that he can not pay back. This money is not being taken from the poor, it is taken from everybody and most revenue sources of the State. They are tax credits. The big waste of money is putting a state park in Albemarle county. Even the Supervisors say it is not needed.
Waldo spent so much time designing his home I suspect he will be above water on it when he decides to sell it down the road.
Your suspicion is suspect.
I hope never to sell it. Problem solved. :)
McNeely dumped the Farmington membership? That’s serious! Maybe he and Pat Kluge will meet in the line for the soup kitchen.
I disagree that a State Park is not needed, and it’s not a Board of Supervisor level issue anyway. The need for State Parks are decided at a State level and based on the Virginia Outdoors Plan which long before Biscuit Run collapsed said:
In the meantime, one of Mr Craigs children flies back and forth to a university in a nearby state via private jet.