Raleigh condo project is sold

A Florida investor has bought the Bloomsbury Estates condominium project in downtown Raleigh after the developer was forced to relinquish the property to avoid foreclosure.

Patten Sales and Marketing of Naples paid $8 million for the 56-unit building at Boylan Avenue and Hargett Street, according to Wake County property records.

The sale occurred after the developer, John Bruckel, handed over the property to Fifth Third Bank.

The deal, worked out in recent months among the three parties, spares the property from being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

"We were all working together in a cooperative, very cordial fashion," Bruckel said of the deal. "It was American capitalism at its best."

The purchase price was significantly below the $14.6 million that Bruckel's development group owed Fifth Third.

Patten has been buying up distressed condo units in Florida and elsewhere over the past 12 months. In North Carolina, the company has also bought units in Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach.

Bloomsbury is just the latest downtown Raleigh condo project to run into trouble.

Two other projects, West and the Residences at Quorum Center, have held auctions in recent months in an effort to reduce inventory. A third, Hue, was taken over by its lender and has since been turned into rentals.

Bloomsbury has sold just 12 of its 56 units since opening in 2009. Bruckel entered into a forbearance agreement with Fifth Third last year that required him to meet certain sales targets.

Last month, a court order allowed foreclosure proceedings to move forward.

The seven-story building is loaded with opulent touches. The units feature limestone from Israel, marble from Italy, custom cabinets from Indiana, gilded bookcases and aged-oak doors leading to trash chutes.

Bruckel said his main goal was to get the project on solid financial footing and try to protect those who had already bought units.

"My interest was in making sure that the building stayed of high quality and that the values were maintained," he said.

Bloomsbury Estates has approval from the city to add a second building on the site that could include as many as 84 units. Bruckel acknowledged that any discussion of phase two may be a bit premature at this point.

"In this day and age to throw around numbers like that somebody might question your sanity," he said. "But I'm the eternal optimist."