Financial troubles trip up SLO developer - Pacific Coast Business Times
Unpaid taxes totaling nearly $300,000 are the latest problems piling up for Robert Fowler, the owner of a 100-acre tract near the Santa Margarita Ranch in San Luis Obispo County.
California officials have issued a $293,757 tax lien against Fowler. Last fall, he received a default notice on the 100-acre parcel in Santa Margarita that he bought for $2.2 million in 2006.
His parcel is close to a 111-home development at the Santa Margarita Ranch that was approved by the SLO County Board of Supervisors late last year and is tied up in litigation over that approval.
According to state tax records, Fowler owed about $619,000 in taxes, penalties and interest for the 2005 tax year. Payments and adjustments brought down the total owed. Until June, Fowler was an officer at Ventura-based developer R.W. Hertel & Sons, a company whose creditors have sought to force it into bankruptcy.
In an interview with the Business Times just prior to press time, Fowler said he was trying to regroup after a series of reverses brought about by the collapse in the region’s housing market.