The Arizona company that owns vacant, unfinished senior-housing complexes in Creswell and Roseburg has filed for bankruptcy.
The filing temporarily shields the company, Inspired Healthcare Capital, from roughly $2 million worth of claims by about a dozen contractors for their work on the two Oregon projects. More importantly, from the company’s perspective, it also protects Inspired Healthcare from claims by investors around the country who say they were duped into funding the firm’s memory-care and assisted-living projects.
Inspired Healthcare, with a nationwide network of senior-housing complexes, last year became overwhelmed by financial shortfalls and legal claims, news reports show. In the meltdown, the company stopped paying contractors at the two Oregon work sites. Workers walked away, leaving the floors of the Creswell complex strewn with construction materials.
Earlier this month, Inspired Healthcare filed for Chapter 11, a form of bankruptcy that protects it from creditors while it devises a reorganization plan.
It’s unclear if Inspired Healthcare has other vacant, unfinished projects in other states. The company, in a news release, says it has 35 operational senior-housing complexes in 14 states.
Many investors in Inspired Healthcare claim the company misled them into believing the projects were safe bets when, in fact, they were very risky, law firms representing the investors say.
The two-building 48-bed memory care and assisted living complex in Creswell is on Emerald Parkway on the east side of Interstate 5. The Douglas County complex is south of Roseburg, off I-5.
Chain-link protection
The exteriors of the Creswell complex are finished but the interiors remain incomplete. The facility is surrounded by chain-link fencing. Numerous contractors have filed liens on the property, and an electrical contractor sued in Lane County Circuit Court seeking repayment for work done. The bankruptcy filing, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas, puts all such claims on hold.
The Lane County Assessor’s Office says the Creswell complex, in its unfinished state, has a market value of about $5.5 million.
Inspired Healthcare also owns occupied and operational senior-housing complexes on Coburg Road in Eugene, and in McMinnville and Hillsboro, its filing says. The company says it will continue running all its fully operational facilities. Those “communities will remain fully operational throughout this process, ensuring that the resident experience is not negatively impacted,” the company says in a news release.
Inspired Healthcare says it will explore “strategic alternatives,” including selling assets.
It’s unclear whether the company will finish and open the Creswell and Roseburg complexes or try to sell them.
A company spokesperson did not respond to a Eugene Weekly email.
It’s uncertain how the roughly dozen contractors who owed about $2 million on the Creswell and Roseburg projects will fare in the bankruptcy. Also, the company owes Lane County $34,000 in back property taxes on the Creswell site, county records show.
In the bankruptcy, the company has not yet filed complete financial statements or a list of all creditors. It estimates it has 10,000 to 25,000 creditors. It lists both its assets and its liabilities as $1 billion to $10 billion.
After the filing, a Florida law firm that represents angry investors said it will continue to seek compensation for its clients. “Many investors report they were seeking stable income and managed risk, but instead found themselves concentrated in [investments] that are difficult to value and highly illiquid,” said Matthew Thibaut, a partner at Haselkorn & Thibaut.
Building permits for Dick’s
Meanwhile, in unrelated news: The owner of the Valley River Mall in Eugene is moving ahead with constructing an anchor building for a Dick’s House of Sport, city records show.
California-based Macerich has applied for building permits for the two-story, roughly 130,000-square-foot store that would be plunked down at the main entrance to the mall.
Officials at Macerich and Pennsylvania-based Dick’s Sporting Goods didn’t return messages from Eugene Weekly. But the fact that Macerich is applying for building permits suggests the mall and Dick’s have reached a deal. Dick’s, the nation’s dominant sporting goods retailer, launched its Dick’s House of Sport format in 2021. Malls build the facilities and lease them long-term to Dick’s. The Weekly in November broke the news that Dick’s was considering VRC for a Dick’s House of Sport. It will be Oregon’s first Dick’s House of Sport.
Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.