Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Nine months after an expected sheriff’s sale of the former Ponderosa restaurant in Shawano was cancelled, the vacant property is back in foreclosure, according to court records.
The former Ponderosa Steak House at 1247 E. Green Bay St. has again been slated for a sheriff’s sale, this time on June 8.
The property originally was one of 15 included in a sweeping, half-million dollar foreclosure suit against the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology.
The suit was dismissed after a newly formed company purchased the debt. The Ponderosa was carved out of that agreement and set aside for a separate sheriff’s sale last August, but the sale was called off shortly before taking place.
The property has remained in the hands of VDG LLC, a company that was incorporated in July 2015, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions.
No other information about VDG is available.
SIST purchased the Ponderosa property in 2003. The restaurant closed its door in 2008 and the property has been sitting vacant since then.
According to the civil suit originally filed in December 2014, a number of mortgages and land contracts on the SIST properties, including the Ponderosa, were bundled into a single consolidated loan agreement with M&I Bank in 2008 and were backed by a promissory note signed by SIST founder R.C. Samanta Roy, who has since changed his name to Avraham Cohen.
The debts were eventually acquired by Wells Fargo Bank of Dallas, which claimed in the suit that SIST and Cohen defaulted on the agreement.
The suit maintained that $526,388, including interest and fees, was still remaining on the debt.
In addition to the former Ponderosa, the targeted properties in the foreclosure action included the Midwest Gift and Fudge House, 104 Old Lake Road; vacant properties at 201 N. Main St. and 202 N. Washington St.; the former Subway at 951 E. Green Bay St.; the former Taco John’s restaurant at 1214 E. Green Bay St.; a property at 143 S. Main St., being rented to Hunan’s Chinese Restaurant, and 145 S. Main St., a vacant property next door; vacant properties at 128 E. Green Bay St. and at 311 E. Green Bay St.; an apartment complex at 117 Mills St.; and three other Wescott properties, N5654, N5660 and N5670 State Highway 47-55.
The action was dismissed after VDG reached an apparent agreement with Wells Fargo. Details were not disclosed and are not filed in the court record.
SIST has nearly lost several properties over the years to foreclosure actions that were settled at the 11th hour.
However, SIST and its subsidiaries also have lost a number of properties to successful foreclosure suits over the last several years, including the following: an apartment building at 463 Humphrey Circle and 1024 E. Fifth St. in Shawano; the USA International Raceway in Wescott; Kiryat Hotel, now the Four Seasons Resort, 201 N. Airport Drive; El Mariachi Cantina and Grill, 635 S. Main St.; former Family Dollar property at 229 E. Green Bay St.; former Qualheim’s building at 153 S. Main St.