The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
The red light glowing outside one of the rooms read "STOP: in session," but no one was recording anything Tuesday. The people gathered in Teddy Riley's Future Records Recording Studios came to see it auctioned off.
The studio once drew music's biggest names to Virginia Beach in hopes of scoring a hit with R&B pioneer Riley. But that glory seemed far past as potential buyers looked over the space.
The 3,300-square-foot studio - an expansive property with lounges, leather furniture and modern fixtures that once drew such pop stars as Michael Jackson - wasn't compelling enough for investors. No one bit at the opening bid of $500,000.
"I just would have torn it down," said Mike Honaker, a veterinarian whose office is next door to the studio at 4338 Virginia Beach Blvd.
Honaker is looking to expand his practice, and the studio, appraised at $735,000, sits on land he wants to use for parking. Honaker found the starting bid too high, however. "That's an expensive parking lot," he said.
Riley's studio has become more symbolic of the producer's woes than it was of his musical success in the 1990s.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2002 but emerged a year later only to run afoul of the IRS to the tune of a $1 million lien for unpaid taxes. He sold his Church Point home in 2006 for $1.5 million to pay off federal and state taxes.
Tuesday's auction stems from $700,000 Riley borrowed against the studio in 2005 from local lender Equitable Relocation Services. He subsequently defaulted on the loan and Equitable moved to collect.
Riley's creditors agreed to sell the studio in February, but the situation has been complicated by deeds that connect the property to a disbarred Virginia Beach lawyer, Troy A. Titus. A February 2007 suit alleges Titus fraudulently conveyed the property to a company he owned and then obtained $475,000 in loans secured by the property.
It's a bigger mess than the boxes of files, DAT tapes and loose wires scattered around the studio.
Morris Fine, the attorney representing the creditors and acting as receiver in the auction, said that with no takers in the auction, things are more or less back to square one.
Fine said the city has expressed interest in the property as a site for disposal of dredged material. He wasn't sure what would happen next to the property or to the remaining equipment inside.
"I'm disappointed," Fine said. "I just thought it would have been better than if we advertised it - some finality to it. "
Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com
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How can the city buy it?
How can the city buy it when they need money to throw at the 31st St corridor Project. Let the Vet Buy it as if he was the city (read cheap). I am sure he would maintain the area especially with the adjacent water.
Uh
I'll take all the equipment inside if you're just going to tear it down. I'm sure it's all outdated now... Alesis ADATs, Tascam DA38/88s, or some sort of 1" or 2" multitrack. Is the console automated (flying faders?). Everything can be done on computers and pretty cheaply now with 96khz/24 bit interfaces on the cheap. I can only imagine what is on some of the multi-track tapes. I saw someone had randomly bought the contents of 80s pop star "Chaka Kahn"'s storage unit, which contained lots of old ADAT tapes. Neverland Ranch was just sold to avoid bankruptcy (talk about bad vibes). When stars fall.