Business Journal fails to report that Pollock has just finished building a mansion for himself in Mexico.
Buena Vista folds
Portland Business Journal - by Wendy Culverwell Business Journal staff writer
Buena Vista Custom Homes Inc., named Oregon’s fastest-growing business four years ago, has been dissolved.
The Lake Oswego homebuilder fell victim to plummeting demand for new homes, which in turn spawned a series of lawsuits and foreclosures, including a $10.7 million judgment in Happy Valley against Buena Vista and its owner, Roger M. Pollock.
The company has been sued for defaulting on loans and for shoddy construction at a condominium it built in Southeast Portland. It also lost a series of semi-developed lots in Southwest Portland to foreclosure.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s office formally dissolved Buena Vista’s corporate registration on June 26, two months after it missed a deadline to submit its annual report and pay a $50 renewal fee, as required by state law. The company can renew its license by paying the fee and filing the report.
The company’s contractor’s license has also been suspended.
Buena Vista vacated its offices at the Oswego Business Suites, 311 B Ave., in March.
Attempts to reach Pollock and his attorney were unsuccessful.
Early success
Pollock launched Buena Vista late in 2002 with personal money. It was his second homebuilding venture. He’d sold RMP Properties D.R. Horton Homes Inc. in 1998 and launched Buena Vista as soon as a non-compete agreement expired.
Buena Vista catered to professionals with families and move-up buyers seeking new, large suburban homes. It was especially active in Happy Valley, which would end up being one of the hardest-hit markets in the Portland area when the residential meltdown came.
Buena Vista was an immediate success, posting $17.6 million in revenue in 2003, its first full year of operation. By 2006, revenue neared $150 million.
The company topped the Portland Business Journal’s 2005 list of Oregon’s fastest growing companies based on its staggering 12,899 percent increase in revenue between 2002 and 2004.
That same year, Builder Magazine recognized Buena Vista as the fastest-growing homebuilder in the U.S. and put Pollock on the cover of its September issue.
The company married its success with a commitment to philanthropy by forming Profit Partners to manage its charitable activities. In 2007, it donated $510,220 to Autism Treatment Center, a personal cause of the Pollock family.
Pollock also started work in 2006 on a new 21,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in downtown Lake Oswego. Shortly thereafter, the company’s financial fortunes reversed when the nation’s housing market collapsed.
By 2007, Buena Vista’s revenue dropped 42 percent to $86.65 million. Its headcount dropped more than half, to 17 workers.
Instead of moving to its new headquarters, Pollock put the building on the market, eventually leasing a portion of it to Legacy Health Services.
In late 2007 and early 2008, Pollock held two highly publicized home auctions at the Oregon Convention Center to clear out Buena Vista’s unsold inventory of 240 homes. Together, the auctions resulted in sales of 177 homes and 14 lots, and generated $75 million in revenue that the company earmarked to buy more land.
“The deals for build-ready lots are getting better and we will simply be in the best cash position of any builder in the market,” Pollock said in a March 11, 2008 press release following the second auction.
After the bubble
Buena Vista’s problems weren’t unique.
Renaissance Custom Homes, Legend Homes, Marnella Homes and Pacific Lifestyle, four of the city’s largest residential homebuilders, have each sought protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Marnella has exited bankruptcy and the remaining three are in the process of reorganizing.
I didn't renew my Business Journal subscription. Too softball on Salem and not strong enough on new economic generating journalism.
Most of the stories I viewed as touchy-feel good.
The last straw was their monthly breakfast honoring our mayor.
Posted by: Livermore | July 31, 2009 at 07:41 PM
Friend told me that his house south of the border is over 15,000 feet. How do you go broke and build such a thing? He also was RENTING houses that the banks took back. Pollack and Wiederhorn should open a business together
Posted by: Morgan | July 31, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Don't count Roger out -
He is no quitter!
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