(WSB photo of The Hole, taken last month)
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that a court challenge has been filed to stop the scheduled foreclosure sale of the stalled West Seattle development site known widely as “The Hole” – but the documents contain a few interesting points.

The sale was ordered in December (as first reported here) by Judge Susan Craighead, and scheduled for February 25th, after her November ruling in the first trial spawned by the legal fight over the site. The goal was to pay off the entities that she ruled had lien priority – including construction companies Aero and Ledcor.

Her ruling has been challenged in the state Court of Appeals, so the entity that has been trying to get control of the site, 3922 SW Alaska LLC, is asking the judge to put the foreclosure sale on hold until that appeal is settled. They say they have an appraisal putting The Hole’s value at $5.16 million, and since the primary liens (and interest) total an estimated $7.7 million, The Hole itself could be “security” in the matter, they argue, with a $2.6 million bond thrown in.

But they’re not proposing that the site stay idle if they get that sale put on hold: As part of its motion, 3922 SW Alaska (the street address of The Hole) is asking the judge for permission to do a foreclosure of its own, so it could “begin efforts to stabilize and develop the subject property,” saying that at the very least, that work would enhance the interests of the other lienholders, in case the lienholders win the appeal. You can read the motion in its entirety here; a hearing before Judge Craighead is scheduled for one week from tomorrow.