C.C. Myers files for personal bankruptcy
By Dale Kasler - dkasler@sacbee.com
Last Updated 1:23 pm PDT Monday, August 25, 2008


C.C. Myers, the legendary Sacramento-area building contractor, has filed for personal bankruptcy because of losses stemming from his personal investment in an Auburn residential development.

The Chapter 7 bankruptcy, filed late Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento, came nine months after Myers was sued for foreclosure in connection with financial troubles at Winchester Country Club, a residential-resort project he's been developing in Auburn for years.

In the suit filed last December, Wachovia Bank said Myers defaulted on a $65 million personal loan to the project. At the time, Myers said, "I've faced many emergency projects in my lifetime, and there are always solutions. The clock is ticking, and we will find an answer here, too."

Today he issued a statement saying, "This is not a choice I wanted to make. It's very difficult and heartbreaking for me and my family to go into bankruptcy, but I consider it my last and final option because of the losses I'm facing related to Winchester Country Club."

Court records say Wachovia took over much of the Winchester property in May, including the championship golf course, country club and 137 unsold residential lots, but was still pursuing him for about $40 million in unpaid debts.

"The market conditions are the worst we've ever seen and we were unable to convince our lenders to work with us to restructure the financing, so I was left with no other options," Myers said in his press release. "I'm devastated that it has come to this."

Wachovia lawyer William Pahland Jr. had no comment.

Myers' Rancho Cordova construction company, C.C. Myers Inc., just completed work on another massive road project, the overhaul of Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento. He has become a California legend for the speed with which his firm has completed huge road building projects, including freeways damaged by the Northridge earthquake in Southern California and the MacArthur freeway project near Oakland, which collapsed in spring 2007 following a tanker truck explosion.

Friday's filing does not involve his company.

Myers began work on the Winchester project in 1989. Some 272 of the 409 lots were sold.

C.C. Myers smiles in 2004 while posing in front of one of the custom homes he built as part of the Winchester development near Auburn. Losses on that project were part of the financial setbacks that led Myers to file for personal bankruptcy on Friday. Sacramento Bee file, 2005/Paul Kitagaki Jr. / pkitagaki@sacbee.com