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Foreclosure complaint against developer won’t affect residents at Firestone Farms
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These homes in the Firestone Farms development in Columbiana County are not being foreclosed upon, but National City Bank has filed foreclosure action against Meadowbrooke Development.
Events booked at the banquet center will go on as scheduled, an owner said.
COLUMBIANA — Foreclosure action filed against the housing developer at Firestone Farms will not affect home or condo owners or other businesses in the development.
National City Bank, recently purchased by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, filed foreclosure action recently in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court against Meadowbrooke Development run by Wayne Bacon.
Rick Vernal, part owner of The Links at Firestone Farms, the golf course in the development, said Wednesday the bank filed a foreclosure complaint against only Bacon’s company.
Vernal, of Beaver Township, Pa., said the golf course and the banquet center on Firestone Farms property are unaffected by the foreclosure, even though Bacon also is a partner in the golf course and banquet center.
Meadowbrooke Development owns the property adjacent to the golf course and banquet center at Firestone Farms.
“The banquet center will remain open, and all events booked there will go on as scheduled,” Vernal said.
The Firestone Farms property in Columbiana includes many upscale homes, offices and condominiums, Vernal said.
These neighbors, Vernal said, are unfairly being lumped in with Bacon’s foreclosure. Vernal added, “Wade is a good, solid stand-up guy.”
In a press release, Bacon said that though the company is currently 90 days behind in its payments, the company has been making payments on the interest it owes.
“As properties have sold, we have been making payments to the bank,” Bacon said in the release. Despite those payments, the bank filed for the foreclosure.
Citing the national economic downturn that hit the housing market across the country, Bacon said only 13 lots of Meadowbrooke’s budgeted goal of 40 lots were sold over the last year. The property, Vernal said, is about 1,000 acres.
Columbiana City Manager Keith Chamberlin said the development’s financial problems probably would not greatly affect the city’s finances.
wilkinson@vindy.com