Turner & Associates - Luxury Home Builder

Though too small to make our headline list, the implosion of Turner & Associates, a Marlboro, Washington-based home builder, is still notable in that it seems to have been spurred by the county blocking the builder from devoloping approximately 50 acres into a subdivision. Per a cached version of a Washington Business Journal article:

In early 2005, citing a strain on infrastructure and services in the rural tier, the county limited to 25 the number of building permits issued that year in that area, which covers about 51,000 acres and where Turner and other builders own property. The legislation also placed a minimum lot size of two acres for each new residential dwelling, in order to discourage subdivision development.

At a hearing leading up to the vote in late 2004, Ingrid Turner of Turner & Associates was among several builders who spoke up against the bill. "My company has invested a lot in properties in the rural tier," she said at the time. "This bill would bankrupt us."

Ingrid Turner wasn't kidding. Turner & Associates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection sometime in late December.