The owners of Equalizer Inc., a wholesale distributor of commodities for agricultural and energy sectors, have purchased the historic Bandera, Texas property at auction for $3 million. The new owners plan to continue operations and upgrade the facilities.
Most of the historic Flying L Hill Country Resort was sold for $3 million at a foreclosure auction on February 7 to Equalizer Inc., a Waco company whose owners said they intend to continue its operations and upgrade it, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
C&RB reported on the planned auction of the Bandera, Texas property on February 7.
The sale of 291 acres that includes the golf course occurred to satisfy a debt of about $3.2 million to Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union by Trey West LLC, which bought the property in 2013, the Express-News reported.
A crowd of more than 40 spectators assembled for the auction conducted on the Bandera County Courthouse steps, which saw the credit union’s initial bid of $2.95 million topped by Equalizer Inc.’s successful bid of $3 million, the Express-News reported.
“We’re going to make it greater,” said Cindy Stevens, while awaiting the wire transfer of the funds to be completed, which took about an hour. Along with her husband Doug Stevens, they own the wholesale distributor of commodities for agricultural and energy sectors, the Express-News reported.
The resort, which was billed as America’s first fly-in dude ranch when it opened in 1947, also has a pilot’s lounge and guest villas that local history buffs contend were designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but that has been disputed, the Express-News reported.
“Our intention is to keep it open,” Doug Stevens said by phone. “We’d like to keep business as usual until we figure out what needs to be fixed and what doesn’t need to be fixed.”
That will be welcome news to local leaders and to members of the golf club who made up a good portion of the crowd that waited in a light drizzle for the auction, the Express-News reported.
“It’s a big asset to the community and we want to keep it viable,” County Judge Richard Evans said after the foreclosure auction. “It’s one of our longest-term attractions here, starting back in the 1940s.”
Penny Bateman, chair of the board of the nearly 500-member Flying L property owners association, called the resort “a jewel of the Hill Country,” noting its features include a water park, stable, hiking trails and a swimming pool. “We want to see it go to someone who will capitalize on its potential,” she said before the sale.
The original marker that credited Wright with designing the pilots lounge and guest villas at the Flying L for retired Army Air Corps Col. Jack Lapham, its founder, was removed after that claim was disputed by an expert on Wright, among others. A revised marker that doesn’t mention Wright was installed last week, the Express-News reported.
Longtime resident George Hamilton was among the auction crowd who recalled the Flying L before a driving range replaced the grass airstrip about four decades ago. “It was nothing to see 25 to 30 airplanes out there on weekends, including DC3s and P51 Mustangs,” said Hamilton, who was still in high school when he began flying there. “In the 1970s I had a biplane that I kept there.”
The previous owners have retained ownership of the 36 time-share condoes, as well as condo assets that include the swimming pool, water park and tennis courts. The Trey West bankruptcy petition listed $9.4 million in assets and $5.8 million in debts. It reported revenues of $3.1 million in 2016 and $2.1 million through the first nine months of 2017, the Express-News reported.
On January 25 Trey West’s bankruptcy attorney Dean W. Greer asked the court to dismiss the chapter 11 voluntary case it filed in September because “in its current financial posture, the debtor cannot presently reorganize,” the Express-News reported.
The motion noted it has been unable to negotiate a reorganization with its two primary lenders and that the ranch was scheduled to be auctioned Tuesday. It also said publicity about the sale “has caused significant cancellations for future events” that make a reorganization plan unlikely, the Express-News reported.
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