The business entity that placed the winning bid on the Claim Jumper building on Main Street in a late December trustee’s sale is a subsidiary of the bank that was the lender on the historic property, an official with the bank has confirmed.
In an e-mailed statement to The Park Record, Van Storm, who is in the commercial real estate division of MidFirst Bank, said the business entity, which is known as CSA 10-573 Main LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank.
It seemed apparent that the business entity had some ties to the bank just after it won the Claim Jumper with a $5 million bid, the only bid entered during the trustee’s sale. The business entity and MidFirst Bank, as an example, share the same address in Oklahoma City. MidFirst Bank had assigned its interest in the trust deed on the building to the business entity on Dec. 24.
In the e-mailed statement, Storm said he foresees the bank selling the Claim Jumper. He said, though, MidFirst Bank does not have a schedule for a sale. Storm said a buyer would probably be someone interested in redeveloping the building with condominiums on the upper floors, a restaurant on the main level and a bar or lounge on the lower level.
“MidFirst appreciates the historic importance and beauty of the Claim Jumper building and is confident that the ultimate purchaser will complete the building in a way that will be a source of community pride,” Storm said in the statement.
He said an “eventual buyer will have a great opportunity to produce a very special building.”
City Hall issued a permit for some work inside the Claim Jumper just after the trustee’s sale. The permit allowed demolition work on the interior of the building, 573 Main St., but it prohibited structural work. Officials also wanted a fire-sprinkler system returned to working condition.
The work outlined in the City Hall permit, though, does not represent the start of a major renovation. Storm said in the statement the crews are conducting “minor maintenance work” meant to “freshen the interior of the building and to enhance the property for marketing purposes.”
putting in an initial bid of $5 million, MidFirst Bank avoided a scenario in which another buyer could have obtained the Claim Jumper at a cut-rate price. If others wanted the building, they would have needed to enter a higher bid than the $5 million bid from the bank. Eight others attended the trustee’s sale, but only some of them were interested in placing a bid.
The Claim Jumper was put on the block in a trustee’s sale nine months after the lender filed a notice of default at the County Courthouse against the former owner. According to the default notice, the former owner, an Arizona firm that once held ambitious development ideas on Main Street, owed nearly $6.9 million in principal, accrued interest and late charges on the Claim Jumper by Nov. 1, 2008.