Nate Paul of World Class Holdings (Facebook / GreatValueStorage, iStock)
Almost two years after the FBI raided the offices of the founder of Great Value Storage, the company filed for bankruptcy.
The company, run by Austin-based developer Nate Paul, took the Chapter 11 route in Delaware last week. The filing comes just weeks after a New York judge ruled that a lender could proceed with a foreclosure sale related to 64 of the company’s self-storage facilities.
Paul and his upstart real estate empire made national news when the FBI raided the offices of his company World Class Holdings and his personal residence in 2019.
That same year, one of Paul’s largest companies, Great Value Storage, defaulted on an $ 82 million mezzanine loan from the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America. The company also allegedly failed to file financial statements or provide a reason for its defaults, according to an affidavit from TIAA.
The lender attempted to schedule a foreclosure sale for early September. But a judge ruled the sale commercially unreasonable because it was scheduled to take place on the Friday before Labor Day during a pandemic.
TIAA then sought to schedule a foreclosure sale for March 10. Only two days before that date, however, TIAA sold the loan to RREF Storage. Great Value Storage tried to stop the sale, but the judge ruled against the self-storage company in late March.
The Austin Business Journal first reported the news of the bankruptcy.
The self-storage company said it has between $ 100 million and $ 500 million in assets and between $ 50 million and $ 100 million in liabilities, according to bankruptcy records.
Last year Paul lost four Austin properties due to foreclosure. He is also at the center of a whistleblower complaint filed against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Four former Paxton employees claim they were fired for meeting with the FBI and telling the agency that Paxton abused his powers to help substantiate Paul’s claim that the FBI raid on his home was inappropriate.
The developer has previously claimed to have a real estate portfolio worth over $ 1 billion and in 2016 was a member of Forbes ’30 Under 30′.
World Class Holdings and Paul’s Delaware bankruptcy attorney did not immediately return requests for comment.
