Debts stall homes project

The developer files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published October 18, 2007

LAND O'LAKES - On May 22, residents in the Lake Patience neighborhood showed up at the County Commission to protest the flooding risks and density of a proposal by Burcaw Development Group to put 36 homes on 20 acres along Lake Patience Road and Kristen Road.

They thought they had wrung a victory when Burcaw's representatives seemed unusually cooperative and the County Commission threw the proposal back to staff planners for re-evaluation.

"We are going to be buffered pretty well - if it ever gets built," said neighbor Edward Moore.

There could be a reason why things seemed to go the neighbors' way that day.

About three weeks before that hearing, Burcaw Development Group already had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a form of court-assisted reorganization that allows a company to regroup without having its assets seized by creditors.

Now, two Land O'Lakes properties linked to companies owned by developer Laurie S. Burcaw face different fates as the financially troubled Burcaw Development Group wades through reorganization proceedings.

An 11-acre site in the Willow Bend development off Collier Parkway and State Road 54 - once advanced as a commercial proposal by Buca Development LLC, a Burcaw company dissolved last month - will be auctioned off by the Pasco sheriff's civil division on Monday, the Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Office conducts the sale because of a court-ordered levy on the property, sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Laurie Burcaw, listed in court filings as the company's sole shareholder and president, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

But Burcaw's controversial 20-acre residential proposal on Lake Patience and Kristen roads appears to be protected under bankruptcy rules for now.

Burcaw still holds a $1.6-million stake in the Lake Patience property, according to court filings.

The tax collector's office is owed $1,302 on the property, the bankruptcy papers say.

But officials in the tax collector's office say there's also a bankruptcy notation on the Lake Patience property, which means the agency can't enforce tax collection on it.

The company owes a variety of debts - some secured, some not - totaling $26.6-million.

Among the debts: $3,000 owed to Englehardt, Hammer & Associates, the Tampa-based planners who are handling Burcaw's Lake Patience project. Ty Maxey, Englehardt's principal planner, didn't reply to a call from the Pasco Times on Wednesday.

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at 813 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 21:43:37]