Update/Correction 11:30 am Friday, February 5, 2010:  Candy and Candy, which refused to respond to the Courier's multiple requests for clarification and information regarding this article prior to its publication, informed the Courier this morning that none of the proceeds of their loan(s) from Kaupthing were used to purchase yachts or aircraft notwithstanding that implication in the article describing Kaupthing's lending which appeared in the Jan. 24 issue of the UK Telegraph, which was a source for the Courier's article today.  The Courier regrets the error and invites Candy and Candy to be more cooperative when we contact them.

9900 Wilshire Boulevard, the former Robinsons- May building slated to become a luxury condo building, will be put up for public auction after developers Project Lotus LLC were unable to secure payment for the $385 million loan due last year.

On Feb. 19 at 10:30 a.m.  the 7.95-acre property will be sold at a public auction on the courthouse steps in Norwalk.

Nina Sanders, spokeswoman for Lotus, declined to comment.

Project Lotus LLC is a joint venture between CPC Group Limited, the Guernsey-based investment vehicle of Christian and Nick Candy and Richard Karing.

CPC Group, along with Kaupthing HF Bank of Iceland, purchased the site in April 2007 for $500 million. Their plans for a condominium project were approved by a 4-1 vote of the Beverly Hills City Council in April 2008.

The proposal called for the demolition of the existing 228,000 square-foot Robinson-May department store building and parking structure. It was to be replaced by 235 condominiums in two buildings, along with 16,441 square-feet of retail and restaurant space.

The project was supposed to break ground last summer and take 30 months to build, but it was put on hold after Kaupthing declared bankruptcy in the fall of 2008.


By October of the next year, Project Lotus defaulted on the $365 million loan it had taken out from Zurich-based bank Credit Suisse Group AG.

Credit Suisse sold the loan to five other banks including Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's bank,  Banco Inbursa, who owns the senior piece of the loan.

In June 2009, Banco Inbursa had filed a lawsuit against CPC to recoup costs on the default, as reported by The Courier in August.

The 11-page complaint was filed in New York State Court, claiming the firm had breached its contract. It claimed that in August they had not paid $20.4 million due on the loan, with the amount continuing to rise as accruing interest was becoming due and being left unpaid.

It is not clear how much of the stake Slim had in the project.

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