Foreclosure sought on land owned by Stanleys

A 150-acre tract of land in Meggett that the town had considered buying for $3.5 million is now the subject of a foreclosure lawsuit.

The property on Ethel Post Office Road is adjacent to the 420-acre Harmony Hall tract that the Charleston County park system bought in 2007 for $10 million, and it is owned by the same property owners who sold Harmony Hall.

The Bank of Walterboro is attempting to claim the 150-acre property, along with 50 sewer taps assigned to the land for potential development, according to a lawsuit.

The bank is pursuing five other properties owned by Susan and Peter Stanley, in the same court filing, and claims it is owed nearly $2.2 million.

No judgment has been issued.

Those familiar with the county's Harmony Hall deal might find the foreclosures of the related properties surprising, because critics had suggested that the Stanleys made a windfall from Harmony Hall.

"This property was flipped in a very difficult real estate market for an astronomical gain," Robert New, a county park commissioner at the time, said in 2007.

Harmony Hall and the Ethel Post Office Road tract were part of a 583-acre parcel of land purchased by the Stanleys in 2007 for $9.6 million.

The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission spent $10 million in tax money to acquire 420 acres of that land just months after the Stanleys' company bought it.

That left the Stanleys with the adjacent 150-acre parcel and a 13-acre marsh front parcel as well.

The facts that the PRC started negotiating the deal with the Stanleys months before they completed their purchase of the land, that there was no public discussion of the deal before the commission voted to buy the land and that state Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, was one of the real estate listing agents also raised some eyebrows at the time.

Some county officials and public interest groups questioned the Harmony Hall deal, but it was ultimately approved and the sale was completed.

Limehouse's firm was paid $200,000 in commission, and has gone to court claiming to be owed an additional $300,000.

On Monday, Peter Stanley said he didn't make any money from the Harmony Hall sale because there were expenses including engineering costs that were needed to prepare the land for sale.

"We had to come to the closing with about $1.5 million, so there was no profit made," he said. "My wife had to borrow $200,000 in order to pay the Limehouses their commission."

Stanley said he and his wife are working to head off a foreclosure judgment on the related properties, and the several others unconnected with the Harmony Hall tract.

If the bank is successful, the properties identified in the lawsuit could be sold to pay debts.

"We're certainly going to rectify this before that happens," Stanley said.

The foreclosure action filed last month does not involve the Harmony Hall parcel because that land is now county-owned, but the lawsuit could tie up some of Meggett's scarce sewer taps.

Also, the foreclosures could leave an engineering firm and another lender who have liens against the foreclosed properties with little recourse, if the bank is successful.

Sewer taps in Meggett are essentially permission to connect to the sewer system, which is crucial for land development.

Meggett has limited sewer capacity and has assigned all of the available sewer taps, which are worth $4,000 to $5,000.

"We could use the sewer taps, and a lot of people want them, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens," said Meggett Mayor Grange S. Coffin Jr.

The Bank of Walterboro has put the town on notice that it considers the sewer taps part of its collateral.

Coffin said the town's policy is to repurchase unused sewer taps and then resell them at cost, so 50 taps are worth $200,000 to $250,000 to the owner.

As for the 150-acre property, Meggett officials had in 2007 discussed applying for greenbelt funds from the county to help with the purchase, but never filed an application.

"We had thought about it, but the asking price was so large, and the town didn't want to go into that kind of debt," Coffin said.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.

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