James Pendry owns 233 Hillspoint Road — the “blue house” that has been back in the news lately. He writes:
There have been several newspaper articles written about a notice of auction for the property at 233 Hillspoint Road.
Some have been full of inaccuracies and snarky, with 2-year-old photos. The “06880” post was respectful and straightforward, but also had a couple of key mistakes.
The house has a mortgage which can be foreclosed upon if the terms of the mortgage are not being followed. Such a foreclosure is a judicial process, with all its safeguards and principles of due process.
233 Hillspoint Road: The view from the street …
What has been threatened here (and buried in the very small print on the last page), on the other hand, is an Article 9 UCC foreclosure of the LLC interest — a rarely used tactic which is explicitly non-judicial, and therefore a theoretically easier and faster way to take possession of a property, albeit indirectly and full of its own vulnerabilities.
The announced auction will never take place, and should never have been noticed.
The attorneys are talking. The mortgage (only 35% of the property’s appraised value) will be repaid in full by the end of the month, in all likelihood.
The notice became public when the auctioneer disingenuously inquired about the cost of running the notice for budgetary reasons. Disingenuous in that the property owner has to pay for notice in any event, and the price could have been easily ascertained by describing the number of lines that would run.
Given the property’s unfortunate and somewhat notorious history, the publisher considered the announcement “news,” and published.
… and the beach.
There’s very little that could further sully the deserved reputation of the Hillspoint monstrosity and any self serving statements from it’s current owner do not lessen the permanent insult he has, will and does inflict on an entire neighborhood.
“Monstrosity” is a misnomer, and the Hillspoint neighborhood is no martyr.
The size of this home is the new normal for Westport.
This tear down/rebuild is no different than what is occurring in EVERY Westport neighborhood. The difference in this property is that the prior owner “notoriously” did not follow town regs to cause a stir.
It is also located near the attention-getting Old Mill Grocery and, as such, is a convenient example of the old vs. new in the fight to save the old.
There are three construction sites, soon to be 4, within earshot of my downtown neighborhood home that are sized to the max on lots as tiny as those in the beach neighborhoods. They go as wide, deep and tall as regs permit. I had one neighbor climb into one of these to verify the height was legal.
The Hillspoint neighborhood is no different than every other. There simply is no place to build new housing; no open tracts of land for anything like new houses, ball fields, or community gardens.
Hillspoint is is not notorious or unusual. It is the new normal in Westport, and has been for decades, since Westport put the concept of tear downs (and teardown.com) on the map.
If you are worried about the character of your neighborhood, look no further than your rumored newest neighbor on Soundview, the one responsible for much commercial overdevelopment and the erasure of green space.
Toni, what’s happening on Soundview ? Who is the newest neighbor and what are they proposing ?
Wait….so the town can’t buy this for $15 million an acre? Andrew, I thought this was a lock?
It’s unfortunate that this was ever allowed to begin with. If town planning had taken neighborhood character into account from the start, perhaps we wouldn’t be facing the current beach area backlash. Repeating the same mistakes across town doesn’t make them any less damaging.
still looks like an eyesore….
More noise, and no result.
One wishes that if there is enough money to repay the loan, there could have been a little set aside to tidy, weed and clean up what is now back to being blight conditions.
So -there is no auction?, there will eventually be an auction?, this is all spin to keep from going to auction? this is all spin to keep people from going to the auction? does the bank own this and has foreclosed? …again?
“curious minds want to know”.
There was a book written -The Pink House, now there can be a sequel -The Blue House. (Other colors still available)
I can’t stand legalese so I asked AI to simplify that letter for me. The result: “Someone tried to quietly force a sale of the house using a rare legal shortcut. But the owner is fixing things, will probably pay off the loan soon, and the auction is unlikely to ever happen. The press found out and ran with it — maybe too eagerly.”
You kids and your computers!
I have submitted a blight complaint. Hopefully, the Blight Board will act promptly and for various reasons, including the fact that all work has stopped, the Board will impose the maximum daily fine, Town and State. Last summer, when the Blight Board agreed to end the then existing Blight penalties, I urged that result only take effect when the house was completed. That was not done. It is time the Town became legally aggressive in addressing this matter.
Who said it was a “lock”? At .10 acre, and a value of $1.1 million, imagine if the town had bought it when they could! But that too is in the past, along with an eagerly pushed story.
Luckily the town already owns everything to the right 🙂
If Thomas Jefferson can build Monticello in 40 years, 233 is ahead of schedule.