Comfort Zone faces foreclosure
Foreclosure. It’s a much-dreaded word being uttered more frequently from coast to coast. Although most foreclosures involve the loss of a home, tough economic conditions throughout the nation – including the Cape Region – are making many businesses owners face the ‘F’ word.
The building housing Comfort Zone in Nassau goes up for sheriff’s sale at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 16, at the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office in Georgetown.
“We came here on a mission to educate, to show people how to live a healthier lifestyle all the way around – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually,” said Wendy Harrold who, with husband Ed, opened the business in 2006.
Comfort Zone is a center for whole-self healing, offering yoga instruction, flexibility training, bodywork and spa services.
The foreclosure comes after a series of events dating to the purchase of the building in 2005 when, the Harrolds said, the real estate market was at its peak. “Statistics show people probably paid 50 percent more than market value for real estate purchased 2002 through 2006,” Wendy said.
“We fall into that period, and we probably paid more than the building is actually worth.”
Already off to a bad start, Wendy said renovating the building turned into a disaster after an architect and two construction contractors failed to perform.
She said after a two-year lawsuit against a contractor that went all the way to Delaware Supreme Court, they won the case, but at a high cost.
“The court ruled the builder owed us about $5,500. It was a company owned by illegal aliens, and they hid a lot of their money. The only thing they actually owned were trucks,” Wendy said.
The lawsuit cost $80,000 in attorney fees they’re still paying. Wendy said she told the Delaware Department of Revenue, Delaware Department of Labor, IRS, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the construction company, but none took action.
“I couldn’t believe these people could be operating a business, defraud clients, use our court system and the departments that are supposedly monitoring and do nothing about it,” she said.
The Harrolds said they were struggling to buy a building, renovate it, start and sustain a business, and fight a lawsuit – all of which were financial drains. With the doors barely being kept open, a tenant who leased a space in the building for a restaurant vandalized it and left, making the Harrolds’ financial situation more dismal.
Then, Wendy said, last year Comfort Zone’s customer base began declining.
“Things really dropped off. We weren’t growing in sales and we were going in the wrong direction.”
She said despite being behind on their mortgage, the lender worked with them, but eventually reached a point where the risk of continuing was too high.
The Harrolds said what happens next with Comfort Zone depends on the sheriff’s sale. If someone buys the building for personal use, they said they would negotiate how quickly they’d have to leave.
But if someone buys the building because there are already paying tenants and wants to keep them, they’ll stay.
“If nobody buys it, then we’ll go on a month-to-month lease with the bank and stay for as long as makes sense,” Wendy said.
Wendy said they’ve made significant progress toward fulfilling their mission, but the job isn’t finished.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done in this area, and we’re not going anywhere until we accomplish more,” she said.
She said part of the mission is having more physicians in the area refer patients to Comfort Zone and similar businesses.
She said until area hospitals offer integrated medical care, until local school systems teach about healthier lifestyles and until local businesses have wellness programs, there’s still work to do.
“We’re not done until all of that’s happening. It’s business as usual for us,” she said. Someday, Wendy said she and Ed would look back on what’s happening and, “It won’t even be a blip on our radar screen.”
