The wrecking crews moved in on 119 Chandler St. in Worcester this week, tearing down the vacant former car dealership to clear ground for a planned 90-unit apartment building. The site is one of several Worcester properties that changed hands out of foreclosure this year after developer Daniel Yarnie was accused of forging his ex-wife's signature on bankruptcy paperwork meant to save his real estate portfolio. Winchester contractor Ricardo Pinto is now the property's owner, and city permit records show a demolition permit for the address went into effect last Wednesday.
Pinto bought 15 parcels in all — including two Chandler Street properties, seven addresses tied to Polar Views LLC and six tied to Daniel Yarnie personally — for $37.3 million at a foreclosure auction in April, according to Worcester Registry of Deeds records cited by MassLive. Pinto, a contractor, said he sees no reason the city won't approve his expanded apartment plans, and he expects the new units on Chandler Street to be ready by 2028.
How Polar Views Ran Out of Money
That collapse had been building for months. Polar Views LLC — run by Daniel Yarnie and his recently divorced wife, Rebecca Yarnie — had borrowed $24 million against nine Worcester properties, while Daniel Yarnie personally borrowed another $16 million secured by six more parcels, according to lender Steven Ross, president of QS Private Lending in Natick. Unable to repay the debt, the couple faced foreclosure and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 20. Court filings listed the Yarnies' assets and liabilities each in the $10 million to $50 million range, according to Worcester Business Journal.
Forgery Allegation Sinks the Bankruptcy Bid
The bankruptcy attempt unraveled fast. A lawyer for Ross filed a motion accusing Daniel Yarnie of forging Rebecca Yarnie's signature on the bankruptcy filing, which also never notified Ross that a case had even been opened. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Elizabeth Katz dismissed the filing on May 5, finding it was missing several required documents, according to court records. Rebecca Yarnie filed a special affidavit stating she never signed the paperwork at all.
As of Wednesday, Daniel Yarnie had not been charged with forgery, according to state and federal court filings. If prosecutors were to pursue the allegation, Massachusetts law treats forging a legal document as a felony punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, per Mass.gov.
Blight Complaints Long Preceded the Foreclosure
Neighbors and city officials had raised alarms about Polar Views long before the foreclosure. Worcester City Councilor Rob Bilotta criticized the company's unfinished projects during an April council debate, calling a lot at 40-42 Hooper St. an "absolute shambles" for the surrounding block, as Worcester Business Journal reported. The frustration followed years of aggressive buying along the Chandler Street corridor, where Daniel Yarnie grew up near Mason Court, including a $1.3 million purchase in 2023 of the former Caola Equipment shop and the site of the old Suney's Pub.
Before turning to real estate, Daniel and Rebecca Yarnie had co-founded Yarnie Property Management LLC in 2011 and ran Finest Trees, a licensed cannabis delivery business in Shrewsbury, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. Their commercial real estate reach extended beyond Worcester's core, too — Polar Views bought a 2,600-square-foot former Cornerstone Bank branch in Oxford for $750,000 in December 2022, per NAI Glickman Kovago & Jacobs.
Pinto's Bigger Plans for the Foreclosed Sites
Where the Yarnies had proposed modest buildings, Pinto is going bigger. The couple's original filings called for 56 apartments at 119 Chandler St., 36 at 39 Lamartine St. and 12 at 11 Parker St., plus a separate proposal for 21 apartments at 216 Chandler St. that never broke ground. Pinto has since revised those plans upward, pushing Lamartine Street to 56 units and Parker Street to 36 — roughly the same jump already underway at the Chandler Street site. City records show he has also applied for demolition permits on several more parcels, with additional approvals expected in the coming weeks.
Any project reaching 12 units or more must now clear Worcester's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, adopted in May 2023, which requires 10% to 15% of units in such developments to be set aside as affordable housing for households earning 60% to 80% of the area median income, according to the City of Worcester. The rule reshaped the local market almost as soon as it was proposed. Developers rushed to file plans for nearly 3,000 market-rate apartments across downtown and the Canal District in January 2023 to beat the ordinance's effective date, and fewer than 200 of those units were originally designated as affordable, according to Patch.
