- April 27, 2024
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WINDERMERE – Construction on a gated residential community in Windermere has stalled.
Rosser Reserve, situated on lakefront property just north of Conroy-Windermere Road, is slated to have 10 residential lots — five interior lots and five lakefront lots starting at $800,000.
However, the future of what was to be the town of Windermere’s first gated community is unknown now that Sue Prosser, as managing member of Rosser Reserve LLC, placed Rosser Reserve into bankruptcy.
Timothy Green, the CEO of Greentree Development Group and former managing member of the Rosser Reserve LLC, emphasized that Prosser had no right to file bankruptcy because he owned 60% of the company’s shares according to the operating agreement.
“I’m the majority owner — I’ve always been,” Green said. “And typically when you have a problem with partners, you file a lawsuit and take it to a regular court and have it be dealt with. But I assume Sue Prosser never did that with her attorneys because they knew it would come out that I was the majority owner. So with this bankruptcy thing, it’s just her last try to do something, and it doesn’t make sense to me, because bankruptcy is just supposed to get you out of debt, not just try to deal with a partner.”
Prosser declined to comment, but her attorney, Bill Porter, said Prosser only filed bankruptcy after being unable to negotiate with the financial lenders and fix the issues that arose from the Green’s alleged mismanagement of the property.
“Mr. Green placed us in a bad position with the various lenders, and what he did relative to the property left bankruptcy as the only way to preserve the development, try to resolve the issues with the lenders and get the property sold to see it through as a successful development,” Porter said.
Porter also noted Green signed an agreement to step down.
“Our position is that there’s an issue with his ownership,” the attorney said. “We’re not prepared to acknowledge his ownership.”
But Green insists Prosser was unauthorized to file bankruptcy without his authorization.
“I bought the property from her,” he said. “It was my plan from the beginning to develop it. It was just that I came up with $3 million, and I owed $2.8 million, so she agreed to basically give me a mortgage and wait until the properties sold. So she’s likely frustrated because we haven’t had any sales, and I haven’t paid my mortgage off with her.”
Regarding the lack of lot sales, Green said it may be because of a general preference to purchase finished homes rather than vacant lots. Assuming the case is dismissed or the judge rules in his favor in the end, he plans to take over Rosser Reserve and build four homes to spur interest with the financial support of a billion-dollar hedge fund.
“There’s a lot of interest in the project, but people want to see activity,” he said. “My goal is to take over the subdivision and change the name from Rosser Reserve to Green Reserve.”
But if the case is not dismissed, Porter said his client hopes to continue with development.
“Whatever may have been (Green’s) plan initially changed based on what he did and then him stepping away,” Porter said. “But our desired outcome is to pay everybody and to emerge from the bankruptcy either with a court-approved plan of organization that deals with the sale of the property or allows the development to move forward free from most of these issues.”
Note: An earlier version of this article read "Sue Prosser, a member of Rosser Reserve LLC, has filed bankruptcy." This statement has been amended to clarify that Sue Prosser filed bankruptcy on behalf of Rosser Reserve LLC as its managing member.
