THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610120261
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 58 lines
A New York lender has filed suit against developer R.G. Moore for $17 million in delinquent loans dating back to 1986.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Norfolk's federal court by a company called ALI Inc.
The lawsuit says that Moore, the biggest home developer in Hampton Roads, defaulted on eight loans last year that are backed by several townhouse developments in Virginia Beach.
The same company, ALI, forced Moore into receivership over those loans in November 1995. At that time, Moore signed a legal agreement to pay $372,000 toward the delinquent loans within six weeks or face the appointment of a special receiver.
Moore apparently did not make all the required payments. The receiver took control of the townhouses in February, according to court records.
Moore could not be reached for comment Thursday or Friday. But in an interview in June, he said he had worked out the dispute with the New York lender.
In that interview, Moore said ALI had bought some of his old notes and was pressuring him to work out a payment agreement. He said the notes were backed by 292 townhouses in Ocean Lakes, Kempsville Lakes and Rosemont Forest.
Those loans originally totaled $26.6 million, according to the lawsuit, but Moore still owes $17.1 million on them, plus interest. In June, Moore said he had agreed with ALI to take back the townhouses and sell them. That agreement apparently has broken down.
Ironically, Moore said in June that he was in better financial shape than he had been in years. He said he had just received a new infusion of cash from lenders and had paid off many large debts.
He also said then that he would never file for bankruptcy if he could avoid it.
``I wasn't brought up that way,'' Moore said. ``I had a choice. I had the assets to pay the people. I'm not going to use the courts if I had the assets to pay people off.''
Moore, 67, is the biggest residential developer in Hampton Roads. He has built more than 14,000 homes and developed more than 19,000 housing lots, most of them in Virginia Beach and many of them in the booming 1980s.
But Moore fell on hard times around 1990, when housing sales started to slump. That year, a group led by Moore sold most of the huge 1,178-acre Kiln Creek project in Newport News for $39 million. The group owed a huge debt on the land.
In 1991, Moore lost to foreclosure the Moore's Point condominium and marina development at Little Creek in Norfolk, along with assorted properties in Virginia Beach. He owed the bank about $38 million on them.
And in 1994, a group led by Moore lost the 1,200-acre Lake Ridge property in Virginia Beach to foreclosure. The group had defaulted on $35 million in loans. The city later bought the property for $9.5 million and recently built an amphitheater on part of the land. ILLUSTRATION: R.G. Moore, in a June interview, said he had reached
an agreement with ALI Inc.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT DEFAULT by CNB