Anaheim Building’s Owning Partnership Seeks Bankruptcy Protection

A partnership that owns the Pacific Inland Plaza building in Anaheim has filed a bankruptcy petition to reorganize $18 million in debts and to protect itself from creditors.

The firm, Anaheim Financial Plaza, listed assets of $1.8 million in its Chapter 11 petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana.

The 5-story building houses Pacific Inland Bank, but Pacific Inland is only a tenant and is not affected by the bankruptcy petition, said John Britt, the bank’s president.

“There’s no relationship between the partnership and the bank” said Richard J. Meyer, chairman of the bank’s holding company, Pacific Inland Bancorp, and its largest shareholder with a 22% stake.

Until recently, Meyer said he owned 63% of Anaheim Financial and was the general partner in the firm. He sold it in June to a firm headed by Santa Monica lawyer V. Anthony Rotunno.

Meyer also owned a holding company for Cal America Savings & Loan, a Walnut Creek institution seized by government regulators two years ago because it was in an “unsafe and unsound condition.” The S&L; is now insolvent and is being operated by managers who were hired by regulators.

A former Cal America loan office in the Pacific Inland Plaza building was responsible for much of the cash-flow problems experienced by the building’s owner, Meyer said.

Once regulators seized the S&L;, they stopped paying rent for the Anaheim branch, he said, and it took more than a year to evict the institution for non-payment of rent.

Cal America owes Anaheim Financial nearly $1.6 million in back rent, the bankruptcy petition claims. The S&L;’s eviction left the building about 40% vacant, Meyer said.

The petition lists Meyer as an unsecured creditor who is owed $3.5 million for advances he has made to Anaheim Financial in the last four years.

The firm’s largest creditor is Coast Savings & Loan, which holds a $13.9-million mortgage on the office building.