Lookout Ridge subdivision in foreclosure

After years of legal struggle, the faltering Lookout Ridge subdivision is in foreclosure and will go to a sheriff’s sale later this month.

District Court Judge David Ortley ruled June 5 that the development off Big Mountain Road is to be sold with proceeds going to Whitefish Credit Union and the various contractors who filed construction liens for unpaid services.

Lookout Ridge Investors and Michael Brown are being held responsible if funds from the sheriff’s sale are insufficient to pay the more than $10 million owed to the credit union and $1.1 million in liens.

According to court documents, Whitefish Credit Union made an initial loan to Lookout Ridge Investors in July of 2008.

Construction liens against Lookout Ridge were later filed by highway contractor Nelcon of Kalispell, engineering firm Thomas Dean and Hoskins of Kalispell, and hydrologist Applied Water Consulting of Kalispell.

In March of 2013, Lookout Ridge Investors confessed judgment on WCU’s claim for foreclosure in the amount of $10,303,927.

A preliminary plat for Lookout Ridge was first approved in 2007. The proposed development was to include 75 lots and 131 units.

Whitefish City Council approved a two-year plat extension on the subdivision last November, which expires in June of 2015.

A massive landslide in 2011 scratched a 1,000 foot scar into a hillside on Lookout Ridge and raised questions about soil stability on the property.