The hobbit Frodo and his companions from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would be among the latest victims of housing market downturnif they lived in Oregon. The Shire, a development with a Lord of the Rings theme in Bend, Oregon, is facing foreclosure proceedings.
As first reported in the Bend Bulletin last month, a notice of default and election to sell was filed in the Deschutes County Clerk's Office on July 22. The notice says that the McDonald family, which owns the property, owes Umpqua Bank more than $3 million. "Just as The Shire was ready to launch, the market crashed," said Ron Meyers, the project's original developer. The bank that had been financing it decided not to extend the loans, he added. "We couldn't find other money." Meyers came up with the idea for the community, which began to be developed in the fall of 2005. Each home has a name and a story attached to it, he said, including the Thatcher house and The Butterfly Cottage. Meyers himself helped write those stories, each of which would relate to the larger story of The Shire, he said. Although it was widely reported that Tolkien's work was the original inspiration for the community, Meyers said it wasn't. "I had a concept about creating a sense of home and a sense of enchantment," he said. "A friend said, "That sounds like the Shire'" from The Lord of the Rings. At the time, Meyers said, he had not read Tolkien's series, and the Oscar-winning films directed by Peter Jackson had not yet been released. But when he learned more about Tolkien's concept, Meyers liked it. "It's the place you finally want to come home to after all your destinations," he said. Meyers saw the films when they came out, but he did not read the books. "I didn't really want it to change completely into Tolkien," he said. "I wanted to have my own accents. I didn't want to read something and then think later that they were my own ideas." Meyers said he sold his share in the project to Dr. Lynn B. McDonald, the primary investor, in May for an undisclosed amount due to differences in opinion about the plan's details. McDonald, a former emergency room doctor, died on July 7, the Bulletin said, and his wife Jan is now trying to sell at least part of the property before a public auction scheduled to take place in December. http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2008/08/14/foreclosure-hits-oregons-shire/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:266106 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
