By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published June 8, 2009
The Noisette Co. is seeking to refinance a $23.8 million loan after defaulting with its creditors, which have filed to foreclose on the North Charleston development, court records show.
Capmark Finance Inc. and two other loan companies filed the foreclosure notice against Navy Yard at Noisette LLC last week in the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas.
The companies own three separate notes backing 240 acres of Noisette’s 340-acre development project on the former Navy base in North Charleston. Noisette is planning a sustainable community of homes and businesses on the defunct base’s northern end.
Noisette purchased the majority of its 340-acre property from the city of North Charleston as part of a compromise that placed the S.C. State Ports Authority’s new container terminal on the southern end of the base.
The company’s note with Capmark expired in August and “the company was unwilling to extend the note” Noisette said in a statement.
“Noisette has been put in the position of finding substitute financing in the midst of these challenging times,” the company wrote. “Since August, Noisette has been working to locate substitute financing. In this economy, however, finding an institution to refinance a multimillion-dollar loan has been difficult.”
The portion of property for which Noisette is in default with its lender encompasses the majority of undeveloped land on the total 340-acre project that is slated for the northern end of the former Navy base. It does not include the Storehouse Row properties that house retail and office space.
In an interview this morning at his office, Noisette CEO John Knott said the company is “confident” it will be able to secure the necessary refinancing to negate a foreclosure.
“We have specific organizations and funding sources we’ve been in contact with,” Knott said.
The Noisette Co. property has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks after the S.C. Department of Commerce released a rail study that called for placing an intermodal facility there to provide near-dock rail access. Knott said that plan would ruin his development plans as well as the redevelopment efforts in the city’s older neighborhoods in the footprint surrounding the defunct base.
Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.
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