Bank of Whitman's loans bought by Kansas partners

A Kansas fund spent $13.6 million last week to purchase a 25 percent share in bad loans from the Bank of Whitman portfolio.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which shut down Bank of Whitman in August, set up a limited liability corporation to hold 62 loans that had an unpaid balance of $101 million from the Colfax-based bank.

Mariner Real Estate Partners III, based in Leawood Kansas, announced in a press release Jan. 11 it had outbid eight other firms for the share of Bank of Whitman loans. The loans were bought at a 46 percent discount.

LaJuan Williams Young, spokeswoman for the FDIC, said the loans were for real estate purchases, acquisition and construction in both the residential and commercial categories.

Mariner will now service the loans it purchased. The loans were made against property in Washington, Idaho and Utah.

A percentage of the funds Mariner can collect on the loans will be returned to the FDIC, which still owns three-fourths of the holding company.

After a certain amount of money is returned to the FDIC, Mariner’s stake in the holding corporation will increase.

Full terms of the deal will not be available for one to two months, said Williams Young of the FDIC.

When the Bank of Whitman failed, most of its assets were transferred to Tacoma-based Columbia Bank. Columbia Bank took over most of the Bank of Whitman’s assets, but left the FDIC with loans it did not want to assume.

Williams Young said the sale of the stake in the company to Mariner is part of efforts to recoup some of the $134 million loss the insurance fund estimates it will sustain from the Bank of Whitman’s failure.

The FDIC fund also sold off furniture, appliances and art from Bank of Whitman offices at auctions in the Tri-Cities and Spokane last fall.