The chairman of the state Senate Banking Committee avoided losing commercial property in Cumming to foreclosure Tuesday.

State Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, owns a 1-acre tract along Tribble Gap Road that had been advertised for a foreclosure auction at the Forsyth County Courthouse.

Murphy, in an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, declined to comment beyond saying that the property was not seized, and that he was continuing to try to work things out with the lender.

The loan was originally issued for about $228,000 by Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, which failed in 2008 and where the senator was once a director. Investors later bought the loan.

Murphy continues to fight a lawsuit from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. claiming he and seven other Integrity insiders were negligent in their oversight of the bank. He also faces a separate FDIC suit over $193,000 remaining on a loan the regulator claims fell into default.