The collection of creditors who own the unfinished Centerpoint condo towers in Tempe haven't decided yet which of several bidders will be the new owner of the foreclosed project, but reportedly will soon.
"I don't have anything to report," Mark Winkleman, chief operating officer for ML Manager, writes in an e-mail at about a quarter to ten this morning. Then, at 10:25: "I will let you know when we have selected a buyer."
We know a winning bid is about to be selected because this week the Arizona Republic's Dianna Nanez has written not one, but two articles to let everyone know it was going to happen. Here's what she said in this morning's edition:
Winkleman told The Arizona Republic on Monday that ML Manager was reviewing three offers and could announce the winning bid as early as Monday night.
ML Manager is the successor to Mortgages Ltd., the former lending company run by the, um, former Scott Coles, a party-loving millionaire who committed hari-kari the day he found out the company developing the condo towers had gone bankrupt. Two weeks earlier, his own company had filed for bankruptcy.
Since then, the towers have been baking in the hot summer sun and sometimes visited by transients and curious trespassers, as we detailed in an our October 15, 2009 feature article on the Centerpoint project.
Last week, Winkleman told the Repub that the bidders were "qualified real-estate investors from around the country."
What's in store for the east Valley's tallest buildings will be up to the winning bidder to decide.
Hotel? Student housing? Or the original plan -- luxury condos?
Whatever happens, it won't be so bad to see a few lights shining in those windows at night.
