A long-running soap opera on Boston’s waterfront will end in a forced liquidation sale, after a federal bankruptcy judge denied a bid by the owner of the Boston Yacht Haven marina to access a $2.8 million emergency loan, and instead ordered the marina into Chapter 7 bankruptcy today.
Yovette Mumford, the owner of the North End marina, dodged a foreclosure auction in April by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This week, she asked the bankruptcy court to approve $2.8 million in emergency financing. In paperwork filed with the court, Mumford said the emergency loan would allow her to continue making payroll while she "finished the permitting to allow for the building of a small hotel and condo [development]."
Judge Frank J. Bailey turned aside that request, and immediately converted the case from Chapter 11 reorganization into Chapter 7 liquidation. The judge acted at the urging of both the U.S. Trustee’s office and Northern Bank & Trust, which mortgaged the marina for $10.1 million in 2005.
"The property simply needs to be sold," said James McGinley, Northern Bank’s attorney. "The debtor has no inclination to sell it. There will be an endless chain of last-minute devices to avoid selling."
Peter Sutton, an attorney with Riemer & Braunstein, added, "You can’t believe anything this debtor says. You’ve got a twice-convicted felon running this company!"
Court paperwork shows that Mumford owes Sutton’s firm $48,000 for unpaid legal work.
The marina, which fetched $11.7 million in 2005, will be operated by an independent receiver, who will also be charged with finding a buyer for the property.
The Yacht Haven site, at the edge of Commercial Wharf, is considered one of the best on the waterfront. A number of would-be bidders swarmed to the foreclosure auction in April, and a handful sat in on a recent creditors’ meeting with the U.S. Trustee.
Mumford, who acquired the property from Modern Continental in 2005, had plans to redevelop the property into condominiums or a luxury boutique hotel. Battles with fiscal solvency and with the marina’s Commercial Wharf neighbors put an end to those designs.
Mumford, the former sister-in-law of Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey, is currently on house arrest. She recently finished serving a stretch in Framingham state prison on felony fraud charges. Mumford’s record also shows a felony conviction for defrauding the Big Dig. Her most recent conviction stemmed from an incident in which she passed a forged letter from her probation officer to Northern Bank. The letter purported to prove that Mumford’s first conviction had never happened. She passed it to the bank after her Big Dig fraud was detailed in the Boston Globe.
