Granite Bay builder going under?
From the Associated Press:
Residential homebuilder Dunmore Homes Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York, the latest victim of the faltering U.S. housing market.
The privately owned builder, based Granite Bay, Calif., near Sacramento, listed assets and debts each of more than $100 million in its bankruptcy petition filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
The company didn’t say what prompted it to seek bankruptcy protection. But Michael A. Kane of Granite Bay, the sole owner of Dunmore, according to the bankruptcy filing, said in court papers that the Chapter 11 filing was in the “best interests” of the company, its employees and its creditors.
The company said it has between 5,000 and 10,000 creditors.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, the trustee for a group of subordinated noteholders owed $20 million, is the company’s largest unsecured creditor. A unit of insurance company Travelers Cos. Inc. is owed $9.1 million.
Dunmore Homes, founded in 1953, built more than 22,000 homes throughout California and Nevada.
Squeezed by declining sales hastened by the crisis in the subprime mortgage industry and excess housing inventory, regional builders have struggled of late, with such firms as Kara Homes Inc. and Meyer Sutton Homes Inc. filing for bankruptcy protection in recent months.
Dunmore Homes has hired restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal as its investment banker. The bankruptcy case will be handled by the law firm of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones.
Judge Martin Glenn has been assigned the case.
