Minor nearly lost another sprawling estate to foreclosure— Fox Ridge Farm in Albemarle— in early 2010.
PHOTO BY MELISSA WILKINS

There’s new financial trouble for embattled Internet wizard Halsey Minor. Just a week after a key courtroom loss involving the unfinished Landmark hotel in Charlottesville, the entrepreneur who gave the world the CNet news source and who funded the predecessor to GoogleVoice could now lose his purchase from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Carter’s Grove, a historic 750-acre mansion/estate in James City County, hits the courthouse auction block on February 15, according to a report in a Williamsburg newspaper.

The Virginia Gazette reports that the Foundation, which holds a note in an original amount of $10.3 million, notified employees Thursday afternoon of the planned sale. The Gazette notes that West Coast resident Minor, who has been named California’s greatest tax delinquent, also owes back taxes on Carter’s Grove.

Last week, an Atlanta-area court ruled against Minor on all counts in litigation between him and his lender on the Landmark, a proposed 101-room luxury hotel in Charlottesville. Although Minor may appeal, the ruling could pave the way for completion of what has been widely seen as an unfinished eyesore towering over the Downtown Mall

As Carter’s Grove LLC, Minor paid $5 million in cash toward the 2007 purchase price of $15.3 million, the Gazette reports. A Hook email to Minor’s publicist seeking comment was not immediately returned.