With the collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers, so may one of Williamson County’s largest residential projects. The Laurel Cove project is a 1,120 acre, 800 luxury home, Greg Norman designed golf course and day spa in Arrington, Tennessee. Lehman Brothers holds the $121 million construction loan as well the ultimate authority to pay all vendors and employees. At the moment the Wall Street giant filed for bankruptcy they were already 2 months behind and now sources say it may take more than 6 months to unravel and assume the loan from the bankruptcy trustee.
What does this mean for the project? It literally means that no work whatsoever will be done until this whole mess is sorted out. Residential construction had not begun yet, but the golf course, club house, and day spa were all more than 50% complete and residential construction was to begin in early 2009.
Prediction: With the national economic slowdown, the developers of Laurel Cove will most likely drag their feet as much as possible to allow the economy and financial markets time to turn around. We would not be shocked if construction resumed any time before 2010.
Update: This Nashville Blog has learned that it may take more than 9 months to sort out the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. As predicted a month ago, the national real estate picture has continue to struggle and Nashville real estate is holding rather steady.
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