AUGUSTA, GA – The future of the J.B. White’s Building on Broad Street may soon fall to the highest bidder.

Ever since Haven Trust, the Duluth-based bank financing the White’s Building venture, went under last December, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the building.

Augusta attorney Travers Paine III, who was appointed the FDIC
receiver for the project in May, said the project is scheduled to be auctioned off on Nov. 3.

“The bank, named Haven Trust,went into receivership and FDIC took over that bank. The White’s Building was a loan asset of the bank,” Paine said.  “Now, they have been trying to decide how to dispose of the property and how to best maximize the FDIC’s interest in the project.”

For the past six months, the downtown building has been caught in limbo.

The last owners of the80,000-square-foot property were Atlanta businessmen Sherwin Loudermilk and Mike Raeisghasem.

When the FDIC took over Haven Trust, Loudermilk quickly discovered that the FDIC protection did not extend to the construction loan for the White’s Building.

However, even though a foreclosure sale has been set for Nov. 3, Paine said that doesn’t mean the property will be sold to the highest bidder.

“We have been bouncing around for the last six months trying to figure out whether they [the FDIC] were going to foreclose or sell the loan in a big package called a structured sale,” Paine said. “So far, this has started and stopped about five times.”

Only time will tell who will eventually own the property, Paine said.

“When that foreclosure sale occurs, if there isn’t a bidder satisfactory to the FDIC to step up and buy the property, the FDIC will bid it in and buy it back themselves,” he said. “That’s just how it works.”