Local developer faces foreclosure in Colorado

Local developer Hank Wilton is reported to have foreclosure  notices on three personal properties near Steamboat Springs, Colo., according to a  newspaper there.

Wilton, chairman of the Wilton Companies, has a 50 to 60 percent stake in a commercial development in the ski resort town known as 360 Village, according to the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

The three foreclosed properties are not related to the 360 Village development.

The properties being foreclosed include a homestead owned by Wilton Development Corp. with an outstanding balance of $1.58 million, a rural home on five acres owned by Wilton and his son, and another rural home on five acres owned by Wilton Development.

Wilton confirmed the news. He said Wilton Development Corp., which is separate from the Wilton Companies, entered the Steamboat Springs market about four years ago.

“Obviously things in the resort market aren’t doing that well,” Wilton said. “Some of the lesser properties, we’ll let go.”

Wilton said he is in talks with the banks holding loans on his Colorado properties and may work out some options with them. Meanwhile here in Richmond, Wilton is currently developing three communities with Ryan Homes.

“What I do there and what I do here are completely different,” Wilton said. “Nowadays people aren’t buying $500,000 lots or $5 million houses, but they are still buying Ryan Homes.”

The Steamboat Pilot spoke with Randall Hannaway, one of Wilton’s partners in 360 Village, about the situation.

From the article:

To understand how Hank Wilton, a man whose holdings include apartment buildings and office buildings on the mid-Atlantic Coast and 30 shopping centers in the Richmond area, came to fall behind on three relatively modest properties in Routt County, Hannaway said it helps to know how Wilton structures his real estate development ventures and what he is trying to accomplish today.

Like many real estate developers across the country, Wilton had leveraged a number of ongoing projects, and like most developers, he was hurt by the lending crisis, Hannaway said.
…
“Hank put it very succinctly,” Hannaway said. “In economic times like these, investors often have to consider what to hold, what to push forward and what to let go.”

Wilton is also involved with a couple of other developments in the Steamboat Springs area, but its portfolio is primarily concentrated in the Richmond area.