Big Country Chateau sells for $3.3M
Note holder is only bidder for troubled Little Rock apartment complex
The troubled apartment complex in Little Rock known as the Big Country Chateau was sold at auction on Thursday for roughly $3.3 million.
The successful bidder was a limited liability company, Big Country Note LLC, that previously acquired the note associated with the 151-unit apartment complex located at 6200 Colonel Glenn Road.
Big Country Note bought the note from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, which foreclosed on the property in 2023.
Terri Hollingsworth, the circuit/county clerk for Pulaski County, presided over the auction on Thursday at the county courthouse.
No other bids were registered after Hollingsworth read Big Country Note’s opening bid of $3.3 million.
Dustin Duke, an attorney with ARlaw Partners representing Big Country Note, told reporters after the auction concluded that his clients plan to rehabilitate the property and bring it up to code as soon as possible.
Living conditions at the apartment complex have long vexed tenants, government officials and advocates.
In 2022, as shutoffs of water and electricity at the property appeared to be imminent, the office of then-Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sued the property’s owners, claiming they had violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The following year, the judge overseeing the case agreed to send the complex into receivership at the state’s request. The decision effectively removed Big Country Chateau from the owners’ hands and assigned responsibility for the complex to Sal Thomas, an official at a Texas-based real-estate firm.
City officials sought to relocate tenants. About a month after Mayor Frank Scott Jr. pledged to extend
emergency assistance to Big Country Chateau residents, the owners were hit with the maximum fine for 30 code violations in Little Rock environmental court.
When accounting for court costs, the total penalty came to nearly $32,000.
As of December, 15 units at the complex were occupied, according to a report filed by the receiver in January. In light of the note sale to Big Country Note, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cara Connors last month granted a motion to terminate the receivership.
Earlier this week, a member of the Little Rock Board of Directors brought forward a proposal that would allow the city to extract money from certain landlords or owners by placing liens on properties in the event that the city needs to relocate tenants.