**7 loch lane, greenwich, back in the day — it’s been finished, now**

After four unsuccessful broker open houses, it’s time to reach into the wallet. You can see this type of ad regularly in another local publication, Greenwich Free Press. They’re usually an indication that it might be time to come in with a low offer.

A $13.5 million Connecticut stone manor in Greenwich has a 60-foot pool

a New, modern home theater has been added. perhaps not the ideal location for viewing the 3-hour Odyssey, but a 15-minute compilation of little Miss Precious’ star performance in her 4th Grade Greenwich Academy’s presentation of The Nutcracker?

The house itself has an interesting history. A builder named Gabriele Donato started it back in 2010 and put it on the market that year while it was still in construction, priced at an aspirational $13.995 million. The money ran out, work stopped, the bank started sniffing around and doing unpleasant things like filing a lis pendens against it in 2011 and again in 2013, and finally took title in 2019, after Donato signed it over. The bank completed it, in a fashion, and sold it in 2020 to thes owners in July, 2020 for $6.9 million. Presumably, they’ve improved it further.

A similar story was seen at 8 Alpine Road, with this exception: it was eventually torn down and a new builder began again — and finished it, this time. Here’s a Greenwich Time article from 2011 on the woes of that builder:

Abandoned homes stick out like sore thumbs in Greenwich

In a New York Times real estate listing from last fall, 8 Alpine Road in Greenwich is touted as a "gorgeous Nantucket Colonial" with such luxurious amenities as a home theater, gym and wine cellar, as well as a rotunda staircase with a domed stained-glass ceiling. Its asking price is $11 million.

To the surrounding residents, the house is an eyesore, abandoned about two years ago in the midst of construction. The would-be mansion sits, barely protected from the elements, and Dumpsters on the property overflow with debris.

Alpine Road resident Lucy Gelb said people come by and dump even more trash in the bins, and raccoons roam the property. She has made calls to Town Hall, hoping town officials will at least put up a barrier.

"They can't let these builders do that," Gelb said.

William Burke, who lives nearby, said he passes 8 Alpine Road every day.

"It really has a detrimental effect on the whole neighborhood," Burke said.

In a town like Greenwich, known for its many trophy properties, abandoned homes stick out. There are at least two dozen such properties scattered around town, from small structures in central Greenwich to half-finished spec houses in the backcountry.

The story of 8 Alpine Road, and two other uncompleted building projects, stems from a bank that went bust in the years after the real estate boom.

James Scheckter, a former Greenwich resident whose family has constructed homes in town since the 1970s, is the general contractor for 8 Alpine Road, which is owned by his father, Ronald Scheckter.

James Scheckter and his wife, Susan, also own 12 Byfield Lane, which, while closer to being finished than the Alpine Road structure, also sits empty. Scheckter, who lives in Redding, was also contracted to build 9 Ridgeview Ave., another sore spot for neighbors.

Aside from Scheckter's involvement, the three properties have something else in common -- they were all covered by loans from USA Bank in Port Chester, N.Y., which was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July of last year. FDIC officials told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers last year that it was necessary to close the bank because its officials acted recklessly in granting loans, principally for home construction.

That money never came. By August 2009, when the nearly 16,000-square-foot house was 90 percent finished, the bank refused to loan the additional funds.

"We never got to finish them because, in fact, they never finished funding them," Scheckter said.

Scheckter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy project in New York for the 12 Byfield Lane project in April 2010, just a few months before the FDIC seized USA Bank. He is scheduled to testify later this month in the FDIC's case against former USA Bank Chairman Fred DeCaro III, a Greenwich resident and founder of the bank.

Last year, USA Bank's board of directors said the FDIC should have granted USA Bank management more time to revitalize the bank. Instead, the FDIC ignored efforts they were making to improve its financial standing, the board said.

Scheckter said he understands that neighbors don't like what they see, but without money, his hands are tied.

"I have very little I can do with it when I have a bank that's not willing to respond," Scheckter said.

….

A DIFFICULT SELL

The process is also difficult for Realtors.

Jonathan Wilcox, a real estate broker with Wilcox & Company, was the listing broker for 1 Northridge Road, a property on the Greenwich/Stamford border that the developer abandoned in 2009. The bank-owned property is now overgrown, and sits opposite a new condominium development on Havemeyer Lane.

There's a lot of bureaucracy involved with a property in foreclosure, said Wilcox, who represented an abandoned house on Maher Avenue, near Brunswick School, two years ago.

"I can't tell you how many neighbors were coming over and just imploring us to get it sold," Wilcox said.

TV host Regis Philbin has been trying since 2008 to sell one of two houses he owns on Meeting House Road. While the real estate market had ground to a halt three years ago, it likely doesn't help that two houses on the street, a Colonial at 23 Meeting House Road and a Mediterranean-style home across the street, have been sitting, neglected, for several years.

"The market still isn't really robust," Realtor Michele Klosson, who is handling the listing of Philbin's home for Sotheby's International Realty, told Greenwich Time in July. "But the street has some houses on it that have been in disrepair for years."

Ah, (the late — his son is our Registrar of Voters) Freddie DeCaro his USA Bank that seemed to lend exclusively to loser builders; Jimmy LeCata and his various abandoned projects in town, including 24 Meeting House Road; separately, they put the fun into the disfunctional Greenwich real estate market of 2007-2014.