Sheriff's Sale of Esperanza Postponed

The Sheriff's Sale of the hi-rise residential development site known as Esperanza, which occupies a solid block of prime waterfront in Asbury Park, was postponed yesterday, December 13th, until January 24th, at 2 pm.
Owner Metro Homes is being forced into the sale by its bank, Capitol One, with which Dean Geibel as recently as early November was trying to renegotiate his debt of $22.3 million. At that time, Geibel told  reporters that Capitol One pushed back the scheduled October sale and that he doubted the December 13 sale would take place. Geibel has other construction sites in Hudson County. Last summer a real estate site for the northeast described Esperanza as an upscale residential community in Asbury Park. 
In November, City Manager Terry Reidy told Asbury Radio that the city had sent letters to Geibel informing him that he was in danger of losing his waterfront development rights on the site.
Last week the City declared its master developer, iStar Financial, in default. iStar took over, in November of 2009, for Asbury Partners after that group defaulted on loans valued by iStar at $70 million. At the same December 7th meeting, the city council introduced an ordinance to borrow $250,000 to fund future litigation costs.

The Esperanza sheriff's sale will take place at the Hall of Records, 2nd floor, in the county freeholders' meeting room, in Freehold.

Capitol One Sending $200 Checks to Unsuspecting Cardholders

Check your mail.
Capitol One Bank is sending out $200 checks to unsuspecting credit cardholders. When one cardholder called Capitol One to ask why she received the check, a clerk told her the promotion was to let people know they can get cash transfers for free, in other words without a transfer fee. When the cardholder rejected the offer, the clerk and several clerks after her, told the customer she had to deposit the check, wait for it to clear and then write her own check to pay off the advance -- that she didn't want to begin with.
Also, the $200 was enough to put the cardholder over her credit card limit, which can result in a fine and higher interest rate.
After an hour and 15 minutes on hold (they had unusually high call volume tonight - I don't doubt), finally a supervisor tried to tell the cardholder that she had requested the check. When that failed the clerk told the customer she'd have to deposit it and then finally agreed that the customer could rip up the check. However it'll take the bank four days to clear her account of the $200 advance and credit any overlimit penalties and interest incurred.
I believe this falls under predatory lending. By the way, yes, Capitol One is one of the TARP recipients. Nice use of our money, folks.