Charlotte homebuilder foreclosed on twice as properties continue causing problems

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - On N Irwin Ave, a historic home was demolished to make way for a new build that the contractor claimed would be the biggest home in all of Uptown. More than 8 months later and there’s only a slab of concrete, a dirt pit in the backyard and two sides of wall supports.

The contractor, Chris Bradshaw and his company R-Cubed Charlotte Investment Group, which also goes by City View Terraces, were foreclosed on by the lender for the project. Court records show Bradshaw placed the winning bid at the foreclosure auction but failed to pay the money to secure the property.

It’s only the latest in a long string of errors and miscalculations from Bradshaw and his companies that WBTV has been investigating since the beginning of the year.

Now, neighbors on Irwin say the property poses a danger.

“There’s walls leaning on the property, there’s children that come and play on the site because it’s abandoned,” Thomas Blue told WBTV.

“There’s a deep hole that’s 8-foot deep at the back of the property. It’s filled with water. That’s not just a drowning hazard, but a mosquito hazard.”

As WBTV previously reported, R-Cubed was foreclosed on because the lender claimed Bradshaw wasn’t making payments on the money he borrowed to build the project.

But new court records show Bradshaw wasn’t willing to give up.

According to court records, Bradshaw’s company R-Cubed submitted the high bid for the property at the foreclosure auction. R-Cubed and Bradshaw paid the deposit but it’s going back to auction again after he wasn’t able to pay the full amount.

As uncertainty over the property continues to mount, Blue fears it will never improve because of the trail of problems left behind by Bradshaw.

“One of the bad things about it is he has so many liens against him that some of them predate and will carry over,” Blue said.

That’s only a small piece of the pie involving Bradshaw’s companies and properties.

Local code enforcement is investigating violations on Irwin and Julia Maulden Pl, properties that Bradshaw started to build on but lost when he had to hand them over to a vendor to settle hundreds of thousands of unpaid bills. The code cases on Julia Maulden were closed on July 25th and city records show the reported problems were fixed.

As WBTV reported two weeks ago, prospective buyers who were under contract with Bradshaw at Julia Maulden Pl now have to negotiate with the new company to buy their home.

“We simply wanted to buy a house and next thing you know we’re dealing with the company that loaned all of the material to the building,” City View customer Bill Hughes said.

Bradshaw’s realtor license has been revoked and his contractor license is invalid. The North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors says there will be a hearing regarding complaints made against Bradshaw at their September hearing.

We asked Blue if there should be more communication between local and state authorities so that problem projects like this get shut down sooner.

“First off, it was WBTV that pointed out the fact that he doesn’t have a valid contractor’s license anymore,” Blue said.

“Should there be a process that when somebody’s license it’s not renewed that the county knows about it? In a perfect world, yes.”

WBTV has previously reported on issues with contractors Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement failed to catch. In 2019, county officials told WBTV they were working on new software that would make it easier to identify patterns of problems with a single contractor.

In an email to WBTV, Mecklenburg county officials said that their permitting system allows them to receive “automatic notice of any invalid, suspended or revoked licenses. If a contractor attempts to pull a permit that requires a valid license, our system will not allow the permit to be issued if the license is not in active status.”

WBTV asked Mecklenburg County whether the system worked for Bradshaw’s projects on Irwin and Julia Maulden. A spokesperson said that their system, which was upgraded after WBTV previously highlighted communication issues, notifies code enforcement if a contractor no longer has a valid license when applying for a permit. However, code enforcement did not confirm that the system notifies them of contractors with invalid or suspended licenses who currently have active projects.

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