Published: 8:15 AM, 08/21/2009

Last updated: 12:52 PM, 11/17/2009

By: Jeff Eason

With all of the foreclosures and bankruptcies in the news, it seems appropriate that Blowing Rock's historic Green Park Inn should be sold during a foreclosure auction at the Watauga County Courthouse.

That's exactly what happened this past week.

But those involved with the sale believe that the story is far from over.

On Monday, Claude Smith, acting as substitute trustee, stood in the front lobby of the Watauga County Courthouse and offered the Green Park Inn and its 3.826-acre parcel of land up for auction following the foreclosure of the deed of trust by Ellaron, LLC to its previous owners, Allen and Patsy McCain.

Boone attorney Tony di Santi came forward with an opening bid of $1.66 million on behalf of a corporation calling itself Green Park Inn, Incorporated. When no one else offered a higher bid, the auction was closed.

Because Di Santi was bidding on behalf of a corporation known to represent Patsy McCain, many in the room wondered if the bidder had actually bought the property from herself.

One real estate expert stated that the bid for the Green Park Inn accomplished two things.

 First, it secured the property from owner Ronnie Wrenn, who had defaulted on his payments in a "lease-to-own" arrangement with the McCains (Allen McCain died earlier this year).

Wrenn had originally purchased the Green Park Inn from the McCains in 2001.
Second, it secured a minimum price for which she would be in a position to sell the property.

It was reported in the public notice for the foreclosure auction that Ellaron, LLC, (Wrenn's company) had owed the original principal of $2 million.

The foreclosure sale of the Green Park Inn remains open, with any subsequent bidders having to bid at least five percent more than the current highest bid, and having to do so within 10 days of the current highest bid.

As of Wednesday, Green Park Inn, Inc.'s bid of $1.66 million was still the highest.

Additional bids would have to start at a minimum of $1.743 million.
The bidding closes at 11 a.m. on Thursday, August 27.

During his statement prior to the auction, Smith stated the terms of the auction would be the same as those in Wrenn's original purchase agreement with the McCains, and that the property was being sold "as is, where is" with all furnishings "not provided but negotiable."

The Green Park Inn is considered to be one of the last Victorian-era resort hotels in western North Carolina.

First constructed in the 1880s, the hotel has been host to such luminaries as John D. Rockefeller, Herbert Hoover, Annie Oakley, Calvin Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt and Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell.
 
The hotel's owner, facing financial straits, closed the doors of the Green Park Inn this past May.
 

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