Clare House LLC and Clare House Bungalow Homes LLC each have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection here, forestalling trustees' sales of a South Hill senior housing development.

The three properties that comprise the development, at 4827 S. Palouse Highway, have been the subject of foreclosure proceedings for about a year.

Scheduled trustees' sales of the Clare House Apartments, Clare House Bungalow Homes, and a vacant parcel referred to as Clare House Second Addition have been blocked for now by the Aug. 20 bankruptcy filings, says Dan O'Rourke, the Spokane bankruptcy attorney for both companies.

"The automatic result of filing is to stay the sales," O'Rourke says. "Normally what we're after is a little breathing room so we can determine the best way to restructure the debt."

O'Rourke says it will take about 120 days from the Aug. 20 filing date for him to file plans for restructuring the companies' debts.

Both bankruptcy filings are signed by longtime Spokane-area developer Harry Green, who's identified as a member and manager of both corporations.

Green, who developed the independent-living retirement complex, originally planned a multiphase, 418-unit campus there. The first phase of that project included construction of the 124-unit Clare House apartment building, as well as a community building and other amenities. The second phase of work included the construction of the bungalow units. Clare House LLC now is listed in county records as the owner of the vacant parcel that formerly was owned by Clare House Second Addition LLC.

In the Clare House LLC filing, assets of between $10 million and $50 million and liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million are listed. In the Clare House Bungalow Homes filing, assets of between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million are noted, and the list of creditors includes residents of the bungalow homes.

O'Rourke says Green hasn't decided yet how he will proceed.

"He's just going to continue to operate and move forward on development. I'm not positive what he's going to do on the sale yet," O'Rourke says.

A joint venture of Spokane Housing Ventures, of Spokane, and Whitewater Creek Inc., of Hayden, Idaho, earlier this year declared its intention to buy and develop the 18-acre complex further, with plans to add an additional 180 units of senior and family housing there, but the sale hadn't been finalized by a June 30 deadline outlined in previous court documents. Through a representative, Whitewater Creek declines to comment on the status of its planned purchase of the property.

The properties fell into foreclosure more than a year ago. Several times, scheduled trustees' sales that would have involved pieces of the development separately have been stayed by court actions as Green has sought to sell the properties as a whole to preserve their value. In September 2008, the apartment building for seniors was placed in custodial receivership pending a trustee's sale to satisfy a debt of $3.9 million owed on the property.