Arvest Takes Aim at Brisiel with Fayetteville Foreclosures

Tim Brisiel of Fayetteville, an eager investor in older complexes, bought the Colonial Arms (top) and Oakwood Place apartments recently for $5 million.

Arvest Bank of Fayetteville has initiated foreclosure on several properties owned by Tim Brisiel of Legacy Ventures.

Arvest, in a suit filed in late July in Washington County Circuit Court, alleged that Brisiel defaulted on an original $495,000 mortgage taken out in December 2004 for two pieces of property in Fayetteville. Brisiel took out the original mortgage on three rental properties in the 900 block of North Oakland Avenue and a single-family rental home on West Beaver Lane in Fayetteville; Arvest alleged that Brisiel still owes $417,500.83 on that note.

Arvest said that Brisiel and his White Rock Investments LLC has defaulted on three additional mortgages attached to other properties, including three rental homes on North Lancelot Avenue in Fayetteville. All told, Arvest is asking for more than $638,000 from Brisiel and White Rock Investments.

Brisiel, when reached by phone, declined to comment on the foreclosures.

“I don’t have any comment,” Brisiel said. “We’re trying to figure out everybody’s position on the matter.”

In the summer of 2016, Brisiel — through White Rock Investments — paid $5 million for two older apartment complexes, Colonial Arms on North Leverett Avenue and Oakwood Place on West Putnam Street. In an interview with Arkansas Business in December, Brisiel declared older rental properties to be sound investments.

Arvest named Danco Construction Co. of North Little Rock as a separate defendant in the foreclosure because Danco won a $23,000 default judgment against Brisiel in 2014. Danco, led by President Preston Wright, sued Brisiel in Pulaski County Circuit Court over a dispute regarding Berry Flats Apartments in Fayetteville, which Danco bought for $1.2 million from Brisiel’s Sterling Investment Group LLC in March 2014.

Wright said Brisiel failed to make repairs guaranteed by a warranty that Danco insisted on since Brisiel asked for a quick closing on Berry Flats. Berry Flats is located adjacent to the three rental units on Oakland Avenue.

Wright said Arvest named his company because of its lien against Brisiel, and the bank wanted its foreclosure claim to take precedence over Danco’s lien.

“They want to put us in second place,” Wright said. “I agreed with that.”