Big Country Chateau up for auction starting at over $3M

Little Rock, Arkansas – Big Country Chateau, a troubled apartment development in Little Rock, is up for sale.

After years of complaints, the city closed it down throughout the summer due to persistent safety issues. An auction of the land will take place at the Pulaski County courthouse on Thursday.

It will be auctioned as is, with bidding starting at $3,317,577. The most recent report indicates that about twelve individuals are still residing there, with the majority of the apartments boarded up.

Foreclosure transactions such as Big Country’s are handled by the office of Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth.

“We will have a public auction. Tomorrow, as they say on the courthouse steps,” Hollingsworth said. “We don’t know who’s going to show up tomorrow. It could be, you know, 20 people, it could be just one person, so or one group. So we’ll just see if we just wait and see what happens.”

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, which has since replaced Big Country Note LLC, is the initial bidder, claiming to be owed money by Apex Big Chateau AR LLC, the previous owners of the complex.

Thus, Hollingsworth stated that it will remain with the mortgage firm if no one else makes a bid. At that point, lenders can seek a judge to compel the previous flat owners to make good on their debt.

About fifteen people were still residing at the Big Country Chateau apartments as of December, according to court filings. The property’s court-ordered administration and receivership came to an end last month.

However, nothing in the sale calls for the seller or the new owners to take any action.

Hollingsworth responded to our question about if there was any worry about the property remaining.

“There’s always that larger concern about what happens to vacant land that’s in the city and in the county,”
Hollingsworth said. “We don’t have that concern at this point and there’s nothing that’s in the foreclosure documents.”

On Thursday, the auction will begin in the rotunda of Pulaski County Court at 12 p.m.