Last month, the couple submitted a new application to the city\u2019s Planning Department for a 100% affordable high-rise with 682 units. Unfortunately for the Hickeys, they no longer control the site of the proposed building.<\/p>\n
That same month, their lender, Loan Oak Fund, seized the lots at 2700 and 2750 Sloat Blvd. through a judicial foreclosure. A spokesperson for the private lender confirmed that the Hickeys\u2019 business entity no longer has any connection to or control of the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The duo had been among developers looking to turn \u201cOcean Beach into Miami Beach (opens in new tab)<\/a>\u201d by building waterfront high-rises, with little regard for the desires of residents of the sleepy Sunset, which is composed mostly of single-family homes and low-slung buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their history of broken real estate promises and swindling investors extends more than two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2004, John Hickey pitched plans for the largest residential towers in California, in San Francisco\u2019s India Basin. Those failed to come to fruition after he was indicted and spent 97 months in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme (opens in new tab)<\/a> to develop land in Napa and Sonoma counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and a co-conspirator bilked more than 700 investors out of roughly $20 million by falsifying property records, according to court records. Instead of using the money to acquire real estate for redevelopment, they paid off early investors, and the remainder went to personal purchases.<\/p>\n As of 2016, three years after his release from prison, Hickey had paid just $5,150 toward the more than $17 million he owed in restitution to his victims. When The Standard tried to interview Raelynn Hickey two years ago at the couple\u2019s two-story home in the Sunset, she lied about her identity before declining to speak with a reporter.\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple this year unsuccessfully tried to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy<\/a> in an effort to delay the foreclosure process for the lot on Sloat Boulevard. Two weeks before they lost the parcel, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge dismissed their case \u2014 siding with Loan Oak, which argued that the couple was acting in bad faith rather than earnestly trying to restructure their organization and debt.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest proposal is yet another pivot from previous iterations of the Hickeys\u2019 pitch for a 50-story tower<\/a>, before they tried to advance a more modest two-building concept<\/a>. The couple purchased the property in 2020 for $8.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Hickeys did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of their previous proposals for the site involved tapping into state density bonus laws that would have allowed them to bypass the neighborhood\u2019s height restrictions. Both applications were rejected by city planners.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is highly unusual for a developer to continue pursuing entitlements for a property they\u2019ve lost in foreclosure unless they have a relationship with the entity that would eventually buy the property from the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763391112_339_-S3840x2561-FPNG.png\"\/)
The site is home to a nursery. | Source: Isaac Ceja\/The Standard<\/p>\n