Just hours before the Hill Country Galleria was set to go up at the Travis County foreclosure auction, the shopping center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The bankruptcy filing stops the foreclosure process on the property and will give the developers of the one and a half year old mall on Highway 71 in Bee Cave time to refinance a construction loan that had expired.
Jill Rowe, a local retail broker told the Austin American Statesman that it is not surprising that Opus chose the bankruptcy route, given that the company was unable to convert its construction loan to permanent financing and the project’s layers of lenders. Even if leasing and other aspects of the project are on track, Rowe said, “just the short-term note coming due creates an unworkable situation.”
