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In May 2007, Longview developer Charles Blevins points to the foot of Mount Solo, where he planned to build houses. Daily News file photo

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Credit crisis sinks Mount Solo subdivision

Sunday, November 16, 2008 11:01 AM PST

By Amy M.E. Fischer

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Longview developer Charles Blevins had big dreams of creating jobs, homes and profits. Then came the mortgage crisis and the collapse of the housing market. When a large bank loan fell through this year for a subdivision he was poised to build at the foot of Mount Solo, Blevins’ dreams died.

The ripple effect of losing that loan caused his other business and real estate ventures to implode. He owes money to several local companies. If he can’t work out deals with his creditors, he may have to file for bankruptcy, Blevins said.

"I lost everything," he said Thursday, siting losses that amount to millions of dollars.

"It all snowballed so fast. I was throwing good money after bad left and right," Blevins, 44, said Thursday. "If I would have been smarter, in retrospect, I would have pulled the plug" at the first sign of the market slowdown, he said.

Last Sunday, The Daily News updated the status of several long-awaited local construction projects that have faced delays. Among those projects was Mount Solo Estates, a 41-lot single-family home subdivision Blevins had gotten approval to build on the north toe of Mount Solo.

Blevins couldn’t be reached for Sunday’s story. Neither city officials nor his former business partner knew where he was. City Development Director John Brickey said he assumed Blevins was abandoning the project because he hadn’t heard from him since the city approved it in November 2007.

Yes, the project is kaput, Blevins confirmed. Blevins, who now lives in Vancouver, saw the article online and came to The Daily News office Thursday to explain what happened.

"People need to know I didn’t just leave town and take the money," he said, adding that he wants to apologize to anyone in town who lost money as a result of his failed business ventures.

After the city approved the Mount Solo subdivision, Blevins said, he and his brother went to Cowlitz Bank and learned their loan for the development’s infrastructure had been cancelled.

"After two years of making very high payments, we were obviously in the same boat as every other developer. So we had to put the brakes on everything," said Blevins, who had partnered on the deal with his half-brother Bob Rick and his wife, Laura Rick.

The lender who’d financed the partners’ purchase of the 77 acres at Mount Solo now owns the land, Blevins said.

Blevins had been working on the Mount Solo project since 2006, when he petitioned to annex the land into city limits. The plan was to create 180 housing lots up the hillside, but after geotechnical analysis revealed the slope was riddled with landslides, he was forced to scale back to 41 lots to avoid unstable ground.

To make the best of the situation, Blevins decided to leave the steep hillside open space for public recreation. He even discussed trail plans with the city parks director and created a trail map.

One of his biggest disappointments, Blevins said Thursday, is that the public won’t get those Mount Solo nature trails after all.

Friday, the city’s principal planner, Steve Langdon, said because the preliminary plat approval for the subdivision is good for five years, a buyer could build it in a couple of years if the housing market rebounds.

"They could still use the preliminary plat," Langdon said. "Having a property that’s so far along is an advantage."

In addition to the Mount Solo Project, Blevins was forced to sell his share of Park Place mall, a retail development he and another business partner built on Oregon Way. He’s lost his two rental homes, plus 10 acres of property on which he’d intended to build a house for himself. He no longer has a cell phone, and his Hummer SUV is for sale.

"I’m just down to the basics," he said.

Blevins, who once owned a mortgage company, is working on forming a non-profit organization to help victims of the mortgage crisis to repair their credit.

"This economy is maybe a blessing in disguise because it makes people realize the power of savings and the power of being frugal," he said.

At heart, though, he’s a developer. And when the market improves, he hopes to return with a different approach — one where he’s not overexposed and overextended.

This has been a lesson learned, Blevins said.

"I have a Ph.D. in loss," he said.

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feistyone wrote on Nov 16, 2008 6:26 AM:

" And this is just one story. How many others are having the same problems? If something doesn't turn around, this area will be a ghost town. "

Rythymaxe wrote on Nov 16, 2008 6:41 AM:

" Dreams are such a hard thing to let go of. I feel for Mr. Blevins, who had the community's future in mind, just as much as his own. Although it's going to take a very long time, I hope we as a nation, can turn around our current downward spiral of the economy and start to get people like Mr. Blevins and Americans losing their homes and livelyhoods headed in the right direction. It's going to take lots of sacrifice and determination, but I know that our nation, faced with adversity such as this before, can pull ourselves out and make our nation great again. Leadership will be very important, but the uniification of the people is needed to make our country great again. We were and still are capable of doing this, but people from all walks of life need to get involved. May God help us all. "

Louie wrote on Nov 16, 2008 10:10 AM:

" Mr. Blevins is another result of this country's severe problems. Our government is at fault but in order to fix our myriad of problems it will take us all pulling together to make it all work once again. "

tresident wrote on Nov 16, 2008 10:13 AM:

" There are 2 sides to every story. "

herenkelso wrote on Nov 16, 2008 11:02 AM:

" I don't feel it's our governments fault. I feel it's the 'peoples' fault that we're having this crisis. It seems to me that the bases for everything wrong seems to be credit. If we live within our means, we simply don't have as many problems. Isn't that what started a lot of this mess? Living beyond our means? The American dream isn't having everything, it's having enough :) "

El Gabilon wrote on Nov 16, 2008 12:17 PM:

" Far too many people want to open a business or develop something on borrowed money. There should be a requirement that in order to do so at least 20% downpayment should be required. One wonders why Mr Blevins cannot be found. If something happens that is not your fault, why hide? Developing Mt. Solo is a fools dream since it is far too unstable, and where land is stable it is probably at the bottom where the top one day may slide down. The trap that we have fallen into is called "Sustainable Growth". We predict that we will emerge from this crisis a little shaken, but will learn nothing from it and a few years down the road we will have another much more severe. Sustainable Growth creates more problems than it solves. Stability is far more important and that is where people who work are not paid the least possible, rather the most possible consistent with a reasonable profit by the company. Money must circulate and if 12% of the population holds 80% of the wealth, crash is inevitable. In addition there should not be a large disparity between what workers (including professionals) earn. We will survive this crisis because we adhered to that old addage "Never a lender or a borrower be." "

tresident wrote on Nov 16, 2008 12:18 PM:

" herenkelso, I couldn't agree more, Charles his ran his business into the ground, the government didn't. "

Straight Talk wrote on Nov 16, 2008 12:21 PM:

" To herenkelso, you are absolutely right. Take a look around our community and see the nice developments that were built 30 years ago, (Terry-Taylor), (Robbins) etc., the major of the homes were between 1500 & 1800 sqft. You can hardly find that in any newer developments, we have to have so much more than our previous generation and we want it now, not later. A fair amount of cowlitz county doesn't make near enough to live in the type of homes they occupy nor do they need such homes. "

Jynx wrote on Nov 16, 2008 2:04 PM:

" How many times must Mr. Blevins bankrupt his businesses until he realizes he is no good at being a contractor? There are many people very angry with him right now. He is the poster boy for why our economy has failed: spending beyond one's means!! "

tresident wrote on Nov 16, 2008 2:50 PM:

" Why should he be starting a non-profit if he can't run a business? "

Reel McCoy wrote on Nov 16, 2008 4:14 PM:

" I have always been partial to ghost towns, not near as many dopers around. "

kitten wrote on Nov 16, 2008 9:19 PM:

" Can you say Hubris? "

Rocko wrote on Nov 16, 2008 10:31 PM:

" His biggest disappointment is that longview wont get the nature trails? are you kidding? Yeh I'm sure thats it. "

mole wrote on Nov 17, 2008 10:07 AM:

" why is it allways,when somebody tries to use O.P.M [other peoples money},and it falls through,they file bankrupcy??build with your own money !!!! "

rockyroad wrote on Nov 17, 2008 8:17 PM:

" It is dissapointing to read ignorant comments such as that from tresident. Adding insult to injury means usually comes from self centered individuals that have never done anything substantial in their life, and could never comprehend creating jobs or giving to their community. So, every contractor that has failed in this economy according to tresident should have never dared to dream, been rich to start with and not borrow money,"which would do what for the banking industry"? And all 100,000 or so of them are bad contractors for allowing the economy to cause the bank to fund their projects! Please! Perhaps the comments were made without reading the articles stating the facts. I guess tresident is bad economy proof! My heart goes out to all the contractors that make the effort to achieve, and who have the guts to get back up after getting knocked down. Most of the countries wealthy failed several times first! "

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