Creditor wants Loveland nursing-home property placed into receivership

FORT COLLINS — A creditor has asked Larimer County District Court to place a Loveland nursing-home property into receivership until it can be sold at a foreclosure sale this fall.

In a filing on July 3, Wapello Holdings LLC, asked the court to approve “ex parte” appointment of a receiver. An ex parte decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the dispute to be present.

The request follows a ruling a week earlier by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver that dismissed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by North Shore Associates LLP, owner of the property on which the North Shore Manor nursing home operates, allowing foreclosure to begin on the building. In that order, Bankruptcy Court Judge Joseph G. Rosania Jr. denied a motion to turn over cash collateral that had been filed by Wapello Holdings and J. Robert Wilson, who owns nursing home operator Columbine Management Services Inc. and 15% of North Shore Associates.

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Wapello emphasized that it was not requesting that the receiver “hold any responsibility for, or authority over the health-care services that [North Shore Manor] provides to residents, the medical records located on the real property collateral, or any of the business equipment owned by” the nursing home.

In an email to BizWest late Wednesday, attorney John O’Brien of the Denver law firm Spencer Fane LLP wrote that “Columbine is pleased that the bankruptcy court dismissed North Shore Associates’ bankruptcy petition so creditors can collect the money owed to them. Wapello has commenced a foreclosure of the building and has asked for the appointment of a receiver to oversee the building until a foreclosure sale scheduled for November.”

Wapello claims it is owed more than $2.331 million from a loan North Shore Associates took out in 2016 but went into default on March 7, the day after North Shore filed for bankruptcy.

When Wilson was managing North Shore Associates, he took out a loan for $2.475 million with BOKF NA, doing business as Bank of Oklahoma, in 2016 and used the real estate to secure it. Then, prior to the loan’s due date, he created a new company called Wapello Holdings LLC and bought out the loan, including all its terms and conditions, which included a lien on the property. 

North Shore Associates and Columbine Management Services Inc. have battled for more than a year, both in bankruptcy court and in Larimer County District Court, over control of the nursing home at 1365 N. 29th St. in Loveland. Majority owners, who have 85% of the shares, claim that Wilson with his 15% and his Columbine companies improperly used his control as managing partner to divert money from the organization by overcharging for supplies and services. Wilson sought payment for those supplies and services.

North Shore Associates had asked the bankruptcy court to deny the trustee’s motion to dismiss the bankruptcy.

Wapello supported the trustee’s motion to dismiss and sought payment of all of North Shore Associates’ cash.

A related bankruptcy involving North Shore Manor, the nursing home operating company, was dismissed last October and followed by lawsuits between majority shareholders of the nursing home and entities controlled by Wilson and his Columbine Management Services family of companies.

The case is: Wapello Holdings LLC v. North Shore Associates LLP, Chapter 11 in Larimer County District Court, case number 2024 CV 30569.