HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The state Attorney General's Office is intervening in a foreclosure case involving the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Thursday that her office filed a petition with the Allegheny County Orphans' Court seeking an accounting of the center's charitable assets since 2006. Orphans' courts have jurisdiction over nonprofits and charitable assets.
A judge also granted the state's motion to consolidate its petition with a pending foreclosure action by Dollar Bank, the center's main creditor, Kane said. Dollar Bank claims it stopped making mortgage payments in January on a $7 million debt.
Backers of the center raised a substantial amount of funding through charitable donations totaling $35.9 million beginning in 2006, Kane said. They entered into a loan agreement with Dollar Bank in 2007 to finance its construction and the center opened in 2009, she said.
The center is named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a Pittsburgh native whose plays chronicle black culture.
Kane said the state actions are an effort to restore the center's financial stability and preserve its mission.