Deeds to seven prime commercial properties in downtown Vicksburg were purchased for $1 million by Britton & Koontz Bank in a foreclosure sale Thursday on the former Ware House hotel, sports bar and lounge.

The Natchez-based bank held the mortgage to the parcels that were developed in the past five years by Robert Ware. Its bid was $950,000 on all the developer’s real property on Washington Street, including the 13-room hotel, sports bar and lounge at 1412-14, adjacent space at 1408, 1410 and 1416 and two parcels that front Crawford Street. All personal property such as the hotel and bar furniture and other equipment went to the bank for $50,000. No competing offers were made.

It’s expected that new investors will now be sought for the high-end commercial properties. Recent listings show the MR Development LLC ownership group had dropped its asking price to $3.5 million for all its downtown holdings, highlighted by the hotel’s posh living spaces Ware had accented with synthetic leather sofas and imported high-back chairs. The complex had been listed for as much as $5 million.

Property taxes owed on what Ware owned downtown total $11,588.07 for 2009, according to Warren County tax records. Taxes are also due for 2008, records show.

Attempts to reach Ware have been unsuccessful since the core of his businesses closed in November. Ware, along with business partners Todd Molino and Los Angeles-based investor John Rundall, had borrowed more than $2.8 million from the bank in 2007 and 2008. Delays to repay the loans prompted a breach of contract suit by the lender in July.

When legal notices of a foreclosure first surfaced in September, the Mobile, Ala., native who worked in finance in California before coming to Vicksburg in 2005 said he was committed to staying open and said he was working with the bank to defray debts. Upon the complex’s closing, which shuttered the hotel, a neon-resplendent lounge below it and sports bars on two levels next door, Ware reiterated he didn’t want to operate the businesses so much as develop new projects elsewhere.

The Ware House’s complex of buildings represented some of the most active investment in downtown during the past decade. Other redesigns completed last year were at The Valley and the former Sears store on the east side of Washington Street. The block was one of several in the urban renewal effort earlier in the 2000s that added bricked streets, gas lighting and enhanced landscaping.