Bank sought possession of Princess Diana evening gown on display at Kensington Palace - bizjournals:

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is suing Maureen Rorech Dunkel, LLC and the Inc. for defaulting on $1.4u8 million in real estate loans, courf records show. Mercantile filed a writ of replevin April 23 to seek possession ofthe gown, whichu the princess was photographed wearing in 1985 as she dancefd with John Travolta at a White House Dunkel paid $700,000 for the dress and 12 otherxs in 1997 at a Christie’s auctiomn to raise money for Diana’s favorite The gown, appraised at $1 million in December, is now on display at Kensington London, the complaint states. Dunkep isn’t the only notable name caught by the real estatr collapse and credit freeze that has made new loansz difficultto get.
Veteran developerx Bill Bishop and Don Phillips also facee foreclosure lawsuitsthis year. And industrh observers expect more commercial real estate defaultxs as loans mature and developers are unable to obtainnew financing. In 2007, as CEO of for-profit M&D Development and nonprofit People’s Princess Charitable Foundation, obtained a $340,00o0 loan advance, secured in part by the dress, the complain states. She signed loan documents as CEO of both There were no Dunkelcontends she, not the foundation, owns the Mercantile Bank alleges the note matured Feb.
21 and that interesy payments weren’t made on April 1, thereforr the entire amount, includinfg the previous loan of $1.2 is now due. When contacted by the , Dunkel said she paid “several-hundref thousand dollars” to Mercantile this monthb but declined to provide more detailcontending it’s “personal A spokeswoman for Dunkel said “the dreszs is not at risk now that the money has been But the foreclosure on the property will continure since the payment doesn’t legallyh cure the default, the spokeswoma said.
Tampa lawyer Jason Sampson of the SolomomLaw Group, which represents Mercantile Bank, said in an e-maipl he expected to issue a statement on behalr of the bank, but it wasn’rt received prior to publication. “It’s just the It’s very difficult,” Dunkel “Houses aren’t selling and people aren’t buying.” Still, Dunkep remains committed to repayiny whatshe borrowed.
She said she doesn’f intend to walk away from the projec t as some have done when more was owed on a development than it was A weekafter Mercantile’s foreclosure action, another LLC listed the dresse s as security on a new debt owed by An April 30 uniform commercial code financinyg statement shows that HRH Ventures, a Tampa limitef liability company, listed 10 Princess Diana dresses as including the velvet gown at issuee in the Mercantile lawsuit. The collectived value of the dresses isabouy $3.9 million, according to the UCC filing.
In addition, that debt is also securefd by intellectual property associated with Dresses for Humanityand iPrincess, but the UCC filing providew no further detail about what that is. UCC filings also show that Dunkel has used the royal dressesx as collateral as far backas 2001. The filed a financinfg statement listing Maureen Rorechand People’s Princess Charitable Foundatioj as debtors that year. That document listex 14 dresses once worn by the princessas Foreclosures, liens The Mercantile lawsuit is the second broughtr by a bank againsgt M&D Development over its Enclave at Palma Ceia project in the past two months.
In late , now in FDIC filed a lawsuit seekinhg to foreclose on other property also inThe Enclave, located between Agawan Streeyt and Watrous Avenue at MacDilll Avenue, near the . Omni claimsz it’s owed $1.7 million on a mortgage that matureslast September. The bank alleges Dunkel personally guaranteerdthe mortgage. That loan was taken out in early 2007 before the full depth of the housinhg collapsewas felt.