Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) submitted the high bid of $55 million at an auction on Friday for the purchase of Makena Beach & Golf Resort.
The San Francisco-based bank is the trustee of a group of lenders which are owed more than $192.5 million by the hotel’s owners, beating out a competitive bid of $50 million.
The auction was conducted by real estate developer and broker Christopher Lau, who was appointed by the court. The sale will now move to to a confirmation hearing before Second Circuit Judge Shackley F. Raffetto.
“In the end, though, the economy remains uncertain and in this environment no one was prepared to bid anything close to what the mortgage lender is owed.”
Lau noted that the mortgage represented only a fraction of the $400 million of total debt that the owners had taken out to develop the property.