SIMI VALLEY : Auction Postponed for Wood Ranch

The on-again, off-again auction sale of the Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley is off again, postponed until Jan. 29 after club owner Olympia & York made a $100,000 payment to the city to protect a development agreement, officials said Wednesday.

The agreement allows 1,600 more houses to be built in the exclusive Wood Ranch community, where about 2,400 have already been constructed. It predates the city’s slow-growth measure, which requires developers to wait in line for a limited number of building permits.

Financial problems at Olympia & York became public in November, when the firm defaulted on a $15-million Wood Ranch loan. Its lender, Wells Fargo Bank, ordered a Dec. 3 auction of the private golf club and some undeveloped land. The sale was postponed until today while the company tried to sell the club or restructure its debt.

Olympia & York spokesman Peter Rosenthal on Wednesday said the bank would be willing to extend the auction sale until April 1 if the company met certain conditions. He would not elaborate on the conditions.

Tom Larmore, an attorney for Wells Fargo, said the auction could eventually be postponed until then, but has thus far only been pushed back to Jan. 29.

“We want to make sure that the development agreement stays in effect,” Larmore said. “The perception is that (the land) probably has more value with the developer agreement than without it.”

“So far, so good,” said Clifford H. Pearson, one of 10 club members who serve on a committee set up to protect the members’ rights. “As long as the sale doesn’t go forward we’re happy, so that we can work things out in an orderly way, rather than through a foreclosure sale.”