Schulz Ranch auction delayed

An auction that would have sold most of the planned 521-home Schulz Ranch development has been posted until Aug. 14.

The auction was originally scheduled for Tuesday at the Carson City Courthouse.

The company handling the auction, Western Title Company, did not immediately give an explanation for the delay.

Schulz Ranch Developers, managed by Lennar Communities of Reno, defaulted on a $26 million loan in March it had taken out with Missouri-based First Bank to fund work on the subdivision. About $12 million of that hasn't been paid as of this month, according to the bank, and the property is being foreclosed.

Thirteen parcels totaling 90 acres of the approximately 125-acre subdivision will be auctioned. This does not include the property that contains the remains of the Champion Motor Speedway.

The city approved the Schulz Ranch project in 2005, the same year the speedway in South Carson City closed after opening 42 years earlier. It is now the largest approved but undeveloped subdivision in the city.

Developer Reynen & Bardis owns the land where the speedway sits. City supervisors have told the business it needs to clean up the old speedway, but the business has said it doesn't have the estimated $140,000 to fix the hazard caused by dilapidated buildings and old stands covered in trash and graffiti.

Representatives from both Lennar and Reynen & Bardis have said they will probably sell their properties. Both businesses have been struggling in the slow housing market.

The city, however, needs to extend a one-year extension to turn in final plans for the subdivision, so they or whoever buys the land, can work from those plans and won't have to re-start the long and expensive process to meet city requirements, according to the developers.

The land is in southeast side of the city, near Northern Nevada Correctional Center's prison farm and the Douglas County line.