by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter

The bankruptcy and sale of a 6,000-acre development in Watauga and Wilkes counties highlights the economic challenges facing the country as a new president takes office.

The Ginn Corporation filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy agreement after failing to make principal and interest payments on a $675 million credit facility loan for Laurelmor and three other resorts.

The Laurelmor development, owned by the Ginn Corporation, a Florida-based company, was planned as a luxury golf resort and housing development.

The corporation released a press statement regarding their file for bankruptcy Dec. 30.

According to a report in the August 2008 Business North Carolina, Laurelmor was praised as the “biggest private development ever in Western North Carolina.”

The same article, however, mentioned developer Bobby Ginn’s previous experience with bankruptcy in regards to development on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.

According to a Laurelmor spokesman, quoted in Business North Carolina, “Banks don’t want to lend money on high-end real estate.”

Ginn Corporation was working closely with the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust (BRRLT), which was surprising for a North Carolina conservation organization, Executive Director of BRRLT, Walter Clark, said.

At a banquet in October 2007, Ginn Corporation announced the dedication of its first phase of Laurelmor’s conservation easement to the BRRLT.

“The conservation easement would initially be completed in three phases for a total of 2,700 acres,” Clark said.

Clark said they were not aware of any plans or issues leading to Laurelmor’s bankruptcy until it was reported publicly.

“The first phase was completed a while ago and 680 acres is now part of a protected land trust,” he said.

Clark said they plan to work with the new owners of the development and encourage them to complete the next two phases of the easement.

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