Who owns what in the Yarrow Bay MPDs?

When a preliminary plat application for The Villages MPD (master planned development) phase 1A was submitted to Black Diamond last month there was some confusion over just who owns the property. Part of the application was a certification of ownership signed by Brian Ross swearing that he is the owner of the property. But the title to the property is held by BD Village Partners.

Mr. Ross could easily correct his certification. Instead, a Ross associate, Colin Lund, defended the certification, saying that Ross has signature authority for BD Village Partners. But Mr. Ross didn’t sign for the owner – he claimed to be the owner. By doing that he skirted the requirement in the city code to identify all persons having a financial interest in the true owner, BD Village Partners.

It is easy to see how Brian Ross can get confused. He is president of BRNW, Inc. which is the sole member of YarrowBay Development, which is the general partner of BD Village Partners. He also wears several other hats; BRNW, Inc. is a member of Summit Place 156 (which wanted to develop the donut hole), the sole member of YarrowBay Holdings, a member of Yarrow Bay Group, and a member of YarrowBay construction management. The latter two companies are listed as subsidiaries of VolkerWessels Canada/USA, which is a subsidiary of the large Dutch company, VolkerWessels. Mid Mountain Contractors is also listed as a subsidiary and is a member of YarrowBay Construction Management along with BRNW, Inc.

And who is Colin Lund who defended Mr. Ross? Mr. Lund submitted the preliminary plat application as Chief Entitlement Officer of Yarrow Bay Holdings although the relationship of that company to the property owner remains a mystery. When I asked the city to provide the document that allowed them to accept Mr. Lund as a representative for BD Village Partners they wrote that they didn’t know what information would do that. When I asked for a document that showed the organizational relationship of YarrowBay Holdings to the MPD property owners they responded that they didn’t know what I meant by “organizational relationship”.

Brian Ross made a funding agreement with Black Diamond in 2007, signing as the managing partner of BD Village Partners and BD Lawson Partners. The funding agreement provides the funding for facilities, administrative staff and the city attorney to shepherd Yarrow Bay applications through the system. Is it any wonder that the staff dutifully deemed the preliminary plat application to be complete even though it wasn’t?

So Brian Ross, as president of BRNW, Inc, has connections to YarrowBay Development, YarrowBay Group, YarrowBay Holdings, YarrowBay Construction, Summit Place 156, VolkerWessels, Mid Mountain Construction and others yet to be discovered. Is it any wonder that he is confused over who owns what? And if he can’t sort it out then you can be sure that the city of Black Diamond can’t either – especially when they don’t know what “organizational relationship” means.

Bob Edelman

Black Diamond