Steeler backup QB Charlie Batch has been ordered to pay $689,000 and interest in a real estate deal that turned sour in Detroit.
In 2006, Batch personally guaranteed $880,000 in loans granted to Cortland Place LLC for a 60-unit, four-story apartment building. Cortland defaulted two years later and the property was sold for $280,000.
Batch doesn’t dispute that he guaranteed the loans. The court case centered on the property’s value. A federal judge said Wednesday that Batch must pay $689,000, plus $370 a day in interest retroactive to last December.
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DrGeorge
October 14, 2010 at 9:23 am
Mr. Loede, this article may be news, but is it really ‘sports news’ merely because Mr. Batch is one of our Steelers?
And whatever happened to investigative reporting? The more interesting questions raised by this article are: (a) How did a multimillionaire sports figure from Pittsburgh wind up in a real estate bust in a Rust Belt city? Why would anyone buy investment property in Detroit? (b) Exactly how did this deal go bad? and (c) What genius was advising Batch? Inquiring minds want to know.
Merely reporting the financial collapse of this deal is like printing box scores without describing the game. I’m sure Batch can take this hit to his wallet without blinking, but it would be a more meaningful story if we knew how he got into this mess in the first place. The court filings should give you all the details, and Batch (or his attorney) ought to be good for a quote, if only to defuse the damage to Batch’s image or future political ambitions.