Newly filed legal records reveal that two controversial housing projects in Greater Portland linked to the same developer are headed for foreclosure auctions.

A 13.3-acre property on Hope Avenue in Portland, where GenX Capital Partners was seeking to build about 20 duplexes and triplexes, is scheduled to be auctioned on Aug. 15, according to an affidavit filed Thursday in the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds. GenX Capital Partners, headed by developer Mark McClure, is a real estate company with properties in Miami and Portland. A broker working with McClure said Friday they are still hoping to develop the land with a smaller, luxury home subdivision and avoid the foreclosure. 

Meanwhile, documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the District of Maine indicate that The Mark, a 45-unit luxury condo and apartment building in Cumberland originally developed by McClure is to be completed by a Camden company and then sold at auction, pending legal challenges.

GenX Capital Partners purchased the site in 2021 and had secured investors to finance the $25 million project, though it has since been taken over by a subsidiary of one of its lenders. An auction date for the Cumberland property has not been set, according to court records.

Plans for both developments fell through after GenX or its affiliates were accused in legal filings of failing to pay for work done — about $2 million in contracted labor at The Mark and over $100,000 in consulting services for the Portland site — and defaulted on loans.

When asked about the potential foreclosures Friday, McClure accused a reporter of being “hell-bent on slandering me and my company.”

He distanced himself from both projects, saying in an email: “We have nothing to do with it at this point, and we haven’t for three months,” referring to the Cumberland building. 

HOPE AVENUE

Plans to build 54 housing units on Hope Avenue in North Deering were halted this spring when the Portland Planning Board tabled the application after city staff said McClure had not paid fines for removing or damaging trees without a permit.

The city requires applicants to settle outstanding debts before pursuing new permits. It was unclear Friday whether the $1,600 fine had been paid. A related $10,000 fine owed to Portland Trails has not been paid, the nonprofit said.

The project also hit roadblocks from residents and conservationists concerned about the impacts on the neighboring Presumpscot River Preserve and the possibility of an increased risk of landslides.

In an email, McClure said that since the LLC he formed for the project “cannot get approvals for the Hope Avenue project” they “decided to hand back the ‘keys’ and allow the lender to sell it.”

In 2023, Titan Funding gave McClure, doing business as 338 Falmouth Foreside Partners, a $1.55 million loan for the property. But according to a notice filed by Titan on Thursday, there was a “breach of the conditions.”

In April, Haley Ward, a Bangor engineering consulting firm, filed a $108,772 lien against the property for work it said it had not been paid for.

According to Keenan Auction Company, which is handling the listing for the property, the city is owed roughly $12,000 in back taxes — $4,155 for 2024 and just shy of $8,000 for 2025. 

The undeveloped property is valued at about $1 million, according to the auction company.

There is a chance the auction may not happen.

McClure says he has been working with the city to change the size and scope of the project and has plans for 16 to 18 luxury homes on the parcel.

Robert Baldacci, an associate broker with F.O. Bailey Real Estate, said conversations with city officials have been “very constructive and positive” and that as far as approvals are concerned, it should be a “seamless process.”

The foreclosure is a “complicating factor,” Baldacci said Friday, but there is optimism that the new plan for the property “might be enough to convince the lender to take a step back and let this process play out” with the hopes that they could generate more money with the new plan than with an auction.

The plans will need planning board approval.

THE MARK

According to court documents, work on the Cumberland project stopped in October 2024 when McClure, doing business as Cumberland Foreside Partners, “ran out of money.” Titan Funding, one of the investors, claimed “Cumberland Foreside had no money to pay utilities, and no funding to complete the project.”

As a result, Titan, which held a second mortgage on the property for about $6.6 million, created The Mark Real Estate Holdings LLC. Records show it used that LLC to take over the property from McClure and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 22.

But simultaneously, Builders Capital, the investor that holds the primary mortgage for $20 million, had taken the issue to Cumberland County Superior Court and was about to get a “receiver,” or an independent third party, to take over the project.

William Harrington, a U.S. Trustee in bankruptcy court who works with the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, called the back and forth a “tit for tat.”

Court records show that they ultimately worked out an agreement that the project would be finished by Cordjia Capital Projects in Camden and then sold at foreclosure auction. Builders Capital has paid the roughly $2 million in mechanics liens filed by the contractors.

Under the agreement, McClure will receive a portion of the proceeds, according to court documents.

However, earlier this month, Harrington, the U.S. trustee, filed a motion requesting the agreement be vacated, the case dismissed and essentially returned to the state court.

The agreement essentially made Cordjia a trustee, he argued, but under the bankruptcy code, the only person who can take over a debtor’s financial responsibilities is the debtor or a “duly appointed chapter 11 trustee” — the latter of which only a U.S. Trustee like Harrington can appoint.

Harrington argued in his filing that the agreement violated bankruptcy court rules and should be sent back to the lower court.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for next month.