Memory care operator plans to challenge court-ordered receivership

FORT COLLINS — The operator — until Wednesday — of Aspens at Fort Collins, a trade name of Fort Collins Memory Care LLC, intends to challenge a court order issued Wednesday that placed the 64-bed facility into receivership.

Larimer County District Court Judge Joseph Findley ordered the appointment of a receiver, effective immediately, on the basis that the property at 3150 Rock Creek Drive was in danger of harm from a damaged sprinkler system.

Fort Collins Memory Care disputes that assessment and objects to how the lender on the property has characterized the issues.

BRMK Lending LLC filed the action on Feb. 1 against Fort Collins Memory Care LLC. But Noah Drever, managing partner of Fort Collins Memory Care, told BizWest that it is really New York-based Ready Capital Corp. that is pulling the strings in the court action. Ready Capital, Drever said, bought the loan from BRMK in June 2023.

Prior to the loan sale, BRMK had agreed to an extension to June 1, 2024, but word of that agreement wasn’t communicated to Ready Capital, Drever said. Despite that, Ready Capital appeared open to working out an arrangement short of foreclosure on the loan.

“We have 50 emails from Ready Capital,” Drever said. As late as Dec. 20, 2023, Ready Capital had agreed to a payoff on the loan of $9.836 million. The memory care company provided a term sheet from a local bank showing alternative financing. 

“Then, they went silent. They won’t return phone calls or emails,” Drever said.

He said the company plans to challenge the receivership because it has a written agreement to extend (with BRMK) and an agreement to pay off the loan using financing from a local bank.

The sprinkler issue that was used to justify immediate receivership is bogus, he said. 

While there were sprinkler leaking issues, those have been resolved at least temporarily and “there is no imminent danger to residents.” A contractor has been hired to begin work in the second quarter of this year to overhaul the entire system, he said.

Drever also said that the requested receiver, Gregg Williams, founder of Trident Pacific Real Estate Group Inc., has no experience in operating a memory care facility.

Still, Judge Findley ordered an immediate receivership and in that order gave the receiver wide latitude to run the facility, collect rents, make payments and prepare the facility for sale.

As of today, Aspens at Fort Collins had 55 residents, or 85% occupancy.

A call to BRMK’s attorney, Peter Murphy of Markus Williams Young & Hunsicker LLC, was not returned prior to publication.

The case is BRMK Lending LLC v. Fort Collins Memory Care LLC, case number 2024cv30090 filed Feb. 1, 2024, in Larimer County District Court.