Lee Danielson has been fired and is no longer the developer for the Landmark Hotel according to the Daily Progress.  No one knows the specifics of why.

[via DP]

Picture of the Landmark Hotel from Blanco Nino

If you recall, we asked some real journalists to investigate the whole story about the construction halt and lack of financing for the Landmark Hotel.  Thanks to a real journalist at the Daily Progress (his name is Brian McNeill), we have an update!  It gets messy…

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Will the Landmark hotel look like this again? Probably not, but according to the Daily Progress,  an Atlanta bank has failed to make construction loan payments on the Landmark Hotel site and Halsey Minor has halted construction on the hotel. The article explains:

Under an agreement with the bank, Minor said, he would pay $7 million in equity and the bank would pick up as much as $24 million to pay for the project’s construction. Minor said he has paid his share, but the bank has fallen behind and missed a $1.1 million payment that was due Friday. So far, Minor said, the bank has paid around $4 million of its total $24 million obligation. 

Um, hello. Banks just don’t not make payments on construction loans for no reason. Construction loans have a lot of covenants that are often overlooked in good economic times. If things don’t look as good, the bank might have a legal reason to not pay its obligation.  Or, maybe the bank has its own financial problems.  It’s hard to believe, even when you want to rooftop bar and free drinks sooo badly.

How about some real journalists call that Atlanta bank and find out the other side of the story?  Sure, maybe the bank is to blame, but my boozstincts tell me otherwise. Hopefully the bank isn’t shutting down, because that would delay the construction a long time.

In response to a post on Waldo Jaquith’s blog, Waldo brought up the Portfolio Magazine article’s alleged belief that Halsey Minor was interested in running for governor.

Halsey made this comment in response to Waldo’s post:

Well, you can breath a sigh of relief since I am not running for governor. This article is from a tabloid.

Notice how many people’s names are attached to quotes. The only named person, my friend Ted Waitt, they claimed no longer likes me. They never even interviewed him and they used a 5 year old publicity photo! Its seriously laughable.

My favorite quote from some unnamed board member is that I am “psycho”. Maybe that’s how I built one of 2 NASDAQ 100 internet companies from scratch during all the madness and maintained a stable management team. Oh and I spun out 2 other multibillion companies including Vignette, the fastest growing software company in history. Now that’s psycho!!

These are just stupid words in an article without a reason for being. And I’ll just stand by my accomplishments. Lets see if Portfolio makes it 10 years and gets bought for $2 billion by CBS. Something tells me I don’t have to worry about a follow up story in 5 years.

So there you go Waldo. Next time mention I have a hotel I am building in Charlottesville thats opening next summer. Thats real information.

First drink’s on me.

I have a question for Halsey. Out of jealousy for Waldo’s free drink, if we put up a big post about the hotel and how awesome it is, will you buy all the cVillain’s their first drink at the hotel!? You did say you would make us feel rich and famous.

/does anyone else think this guy rocks?

Many of you complained about our nighttime pictures from the top of the crane because the quality wasn’t so good.  Hey, what can you expect with a bunch of hoodlums?  We’ve had an official member of the construction site provide us with some of the sweetest pictures from the top of the crane.  He said we had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting to the top, but provided these pictures instead.

Also, he reminds you that the crane is very dangerous, so don’t try to climb to the top! The first picture in the slideshow is of 560 ft VA Beach Behemoth which would tower over our little 160 ft baby beast. The rest are from Charlottesville’s Landmark Hotel Construction Site!

Pictures after the break…

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The other day as I walked to work, I saw my first blooms of spring coming from the tree at the corner of Water & Second, across from LiveArts. It was a great feeling; it was proof that in the near future, there would be patio drinking, flip flops, sun dresses, and beaches.

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YOU WILL WANT TO COME HERE, TO THE LANDMARK YOU WILL LIKE IT, CHARLOTTESVILLE

I’m not making this up. In a recent interview with NBC 29 about the up and coming boutique hotel named “The Landmark,” Developer Lee Danielson told NBC 29 the following things:

You’ll see a friend and say I’ll meet you at the landmark. It will be a landmark for Charlottesville…[and] Charlottesville is about community and our hotel and the boutique concept is about the community. So when you walk in there it’s going to be a meeting place that you want to come to.

Am I being forced to like the hotel?  Is Lee a hypnotist.  I think so.
Now count slowly back from 50..5…4..3..2..1. Nice, now imagine you are in a special place.  You must  in the hotel. You will go to The Landmark and enjoy it.  You will tell your friends that you want to love it.  You will love it.. or else you will feel.. pain.

Ok, it sounds a little over the top and like they got ahead of themselves on how cool this spot is going to be.  We’ll find out in July 2009.

I’m looking forward to the rooftop deck; nothing like drinking martinis on a rooftop deck.  Did you hear that, developers? 

[via NBC 29]