Marineland Site May Be Auctioned : Property: The 105 acres and a second parcel will go on the block Dec. 15 unless developer James A. Monaghan, who owes $28 million, finds a buyer.

The site of the old Marineland amusement park in Rancho Palos Verdes is one of two properties the owner will put on the auction block Dec. 15 if he can’t find a buyer.

James A. Monaghan, who bought the properties in the mid-1980s, denied reports published in a local newspaper Wednesday that he was filing for federal bankruptcy protection to avert a government takeover of the Marineland site.

Monaghan owes $28 million on two parcels and faces foreclosure, but said that he had not “filed for bankruptcy and we do not intend to file.”

Monaghan said in a telephone interview that he would either sell the property himself or auction it off next month, rather than let the government foreclose.

The Resolution Trust Corp. holds the $28-million note because Monaghan defaulted on the loan made by a failed savings and loan, the Oak Tree Savings Bank of New Orleans. The RTC, the government agency liquidating failed savings and loans, has threatened to foreclose if Monaghan cannot find a buyer.

Monaghan has city approval to build a 450-room hotel and convention center complex on the 105-acre Marineland site at Long Point, but he has failed to come up with $200 million in financing. He also planned a residential golf course development on the second parcel, 315 acres in the Portuguese Bend area of the city.

Monaghan defaulted on the original $24-million note, plus $4 million in penalties and late fees, in May. The RTC stepped in this summer and announced that it would auction off the land in the fall.

Monaghan asked for more time, persuading federal officials that he would either refinance the deal or find a buyer.

“We are still in control,” Monaghan said. The Dec. 15 auction has been advertised widely in the national media, and Monaghan said he is also talking with a potential buyer.

“We’re very close to putting a deal together,” he said.

If no deal comes together, however, the two properties will be sold by Larry Latham Auctioneers on Dec. 15 at 1:30 p.m. at the Long Point site.

“We’ve spent nearly six years working on this project. We hope that another developer . . . will be able to pick up where we left off,” Monaghan said.