Bank pushes back foreclosure sale on old Academy home

Part of the campus has been sold

The former home of the Crested Butte Academy was scheduled to go on the auction block in foreclosure this week, but that action has now been postponed until July.

According to Teresa Brown, deputy public trustee in the Gunnison County Treasurer’s Office, the date for the foreclosure auction has been changed from Wednesday, June 25 to Wednesday, July 16 and will not include the portion of the campus that was originally The Inn at Crested Butte.
That building, at 510 Whiterock Avenue, was sold to private investors last month. The building across the street is still slated for the foreclosure auction.
“No reason was given for the continuance,” Brown said. “We were notified by the bank’s attorney that they wanted to postpone the auction.”
The Crested Butte Academy, started in 1993, is a college preparatory boarding and day school that also offers alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. The Academy announced it was declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2003. A public fundraising effort kept the Academy from shutting its doors at that time.
The town of Crested Butte and Gunnison County both backed loans made to the Academy when the school hit financial problems in 2004, 2005 and 2006. While the government entities did not lose money on the deal, their backing did allow the Academy to qualify for a lower municipal interest rate.
In March 2007, the town received an initial default letter from Wells Fargo Bank stating the Academy had drawn down its reserves.
The Academy has gone through several incarnations during the last two years, with the latest one having the school being owned by local developer Gary Garland’s Mountain Sports Academy LLC.
The Academy is still looking for a permanent home.
The auction of the former campus building at 505 Whiterock Avenue will be held at the county treasurer’s office in the Blackstock Government Center in Gunnison. For more information, call 641-2231.