Lajitas is at auction today.

[SHANEA]

Somehow I think Texas Monthly will never see a dime of their $35K due... TWWG

and do you really think that $35K is even a blip on their radar screen.  $35K to TM is floor sweeps, immaterial on the balance sheet.     

[SHANEA]

Yeah Right!

Boardwalk Suite Two Bedroom

     
Online Rates:
US$840.00 (Dec 17,2007 - Dec 20,2007)

Taxes/Fees: US$302.40       
Total: US$3,662.40
 

Be sure and check out the kids menu, $8.00 and some change for a frickin hotdog.  And I thought getting a hot dog at a baseball/football stadium or airport was expensive.   

[Voni]

More intrigue:

http://www.marfatx.com/uploadedfiles/poindexter120607.html

Poindexter park proposal
hangs on Lajitas sale

 

 

By STERRY BUTCHER

SAN ANTONIO – The sale of the Ultimate Hideout resort in Lajitas could become final on Friday and its outcome may have an eventual impact on Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Ordered by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King, the sale has been mired in weeks of on-and-off negotiations. The resort owes more than $14 million to creditor Prime Asset Funding and a total of about $2 million to a long list of unsecured creditors.

“There are a couple of offers,” Frank Harrison, of Prime Asset Funding, said this week. “There are probably a couple more coming in.”

Harrison wouldn’t disclose the names of the parties who are still involved in bidding for the 25,000-acre, upscale getaway.

The amount of those offers, he said, “are around the $15 million to $16 million range.”

Harrison said he expected King to determine the winning bid on Friday, with closure on the deal coming shortly afterward. The bankruptcy proceedings began five months ago, in July.

“It’s been a long, strange trip,” Harrison said.

Watching the bankruptcy sale closely is John Poindexter, the owner of the Cibolo Creek Ranch resort near Shafter. Poindexter desires more acreage for his ranch and in 2005 he proposed to buy 45,000 acres of adjacent parkland that was, and is, currently inaccessible to the public.

That deal fell through, largely because of a vivid and very strong public reaction against the would-be transaction’s lack of transparency or public input.

With the Lajitas bankruptcy this summer, Poindexter again approached state parks officials with a proposal. If he could purchase part of the undeveloped Lajitas property close to Big Bend Ranch’s southern boundaries, Poindexter offered, perhaps a trade could be arranged for the acreage adjoining his ranch. Those discussions about a possible trade have continued through the Lajitas sale negotiations, Poindexter said on Tuesday, although he is not directly bidding in Friday’s sale.

“I’m in conversation with one of the bidders,” he said. “He and I have an understanding that when and if he’s the winner, we’ll have a positive and serious conversation regarding the opportunity to acquire rural land associated with Lajitas with the sole purpose of trading it to Big Bend Ranch State Park.”

Poindexter would like up to 20,000 acres in the remote section of the park sometimes called the Panhandle, but whether the complicated deal works out is iffy.

“The parks administration is very interested in certain parcels of land fairly closely associated with the resort,” he said. “And it’s not very interested in properties farther from the center of the resort that don’t directly connect to Big Bend Ranch State Park. On the other hand, it’s unreasonable for me to expect the buyer of a resort to be highly motivated to sell me property that’s not too far from the resort and for him to hold on to stuff that’s in the outer areas.”

Poindexter also has doubts that this bidder will end up with the resort.

“The likelihood of him emerging as a victor is not positive,” he said. “I have to see what happens. There’s no point in engaging the Parks and Wildlife’s time or engaging the prospective winner until he’s a winner.”

Parks and Wildlife has demonstrated interest in the potential deal. In an August 29 letter obtained by this newspaper, Poindexter formalizes what had previously been an informal proposal to Parks and Wildlife.

“My suggestion is that a good first step would be to decide how much, if any, of the Lajitas resort acreage could be useful to you,” he wrote.

Parks and Wildlife Deputy Executive Director Scott Boruff responded on September 25.

“As always,” said Boruff, “Texas Parks and Wildlife Department appreciates your efforts to find creative ways to address land and boundary issues of mutual concern.”

He lays out several requisite conditions to be met if a deal were to happen. There could be no net loss of acreage; the park boundaries must remain manageable and the land traded would be of equal or greater biological and recreational value; water, riparian and cultural resources of the Panhandle’s Cienega Creek area would have to be protected with a conservation easement.

Then there’s the matter of the road. The gated Tinaja China road leads to the Panhandle, first crossing Poindexter’s Cibolo Creek Ranch and the ranches of several other property owners. Poindexter had in the past asked Presidio County to make it a county road, and was declined. In 2007, Parks and Wildlife asked the county to designate the road as a county road in order to open access to Big Bend Ranch. A neighboring land owner, John Boerschig, vehemently opposes the designation and is already in litigation with Poindexter about easement issues on that road. Boerschig and the county are now in litigation about the designation.

Mindful of the road controversy, Poindexter clarified in a September 22 email to Parks and Wildlife that the park acreage he’d receive in a potential trade is an “area only about 25 percent of the ill-fated 2005 deal and it is clear of the route of a prospective future public road leading into the northern neck of the park.”

Whether Poindexter’s bidding ally wins Lajitas is up in the air. Whether that bidder would be willing to sell off choice parcels favorable to Parks and Wildlife is unknown. Whether Tinaja China becomes a county road with public access is in dispute.

But what if it all came to fruition – Lajitas sold, the trade was made, and the road was opened. Would the Panhandle just belong to Poindexter? And would the road, open and public, go only to his land and nullify the easement litigation with his neighbor, Boerschig?

Poindexter says no.

“There would still be parkland at the end of the road or the road would be re-routed depending on what land the park would be willing to trade,” he said.

Poindexter is an adamant proponent of opening Tinaja China road for public use, but added “if the Parks administration were to agree to a trade at the most optimistic dimension, at no point does the terminus of this road have any economic benefit to me. I gain nothing by a public road – I already have access, it already crosses my property and leads to my property. There is no relationship whatsoever between Big Bend Ranch State Park and any transaction that might deal with me and this road.”

A Lajitas-Poindexter-Parks and Wildlife deal is predicated on a layered series of possibilities that must each fall in place. Poindexter admitted that the likelihood of it all coming together for him is uncertain.

“I rate the chances of the bidder at less than 50-50,” he said. “And I rate my chances with him and that the park would want to trade at 50-50. I rate next to zero that I wind up with any land in any way touching this road.”

Voni
  sMiling

[SHANEA]

By Dang, I'll be out at BBRSP "soon", I'm going to make darn tootin sure that I get out to Panhandle’s Cienega Creek area and see what is out there that is so worthy of so much attention.  There must be something more precious than gold out there in the desert.

[Matador]

Just saw this...
http://www.bigbendgazette.com/blog/_archives/2007/12/7/3397408.html

[TheWildWestGuy]

Well that's interesting.  I thought it would go a lot cheaper than $13M.  After all it's a money pit.  It will be interesting to see what happens now but I bet he already has some deal with Poindexter for a land sale/swap.  The "ultimate hideout" business model didn't work too well so he either has to come up with a better model, sell off the assets (or most of them), or keep pouring more money into the place... TWWG

[SHANEA]

Connecting the dots between Lajitas Resort and Friends of Big Bend... and I don't believe in coincidences...

Energy Transfer - Kelcy L. Warren - Soon to be New Owner of Lajitas based on article from Big Bend Gazette.

Warren is CEO of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, LLC a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Last year the company grossed $6.7 billion and had a net profit of $676 million.

Kelcy L. Warren
Chief Executive Officer, and
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Mr. Warren is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (ETP).  Mr. Warren also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the general partner of Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. (ETE), Chief Executive Officer of the general partner of ETC OLP (subsidiary that owns ETP’s midstream operations), and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of the general partner of ETC Holdings, L.P (owns interest in ETE).  Prior to the combination of the operations of ETP and Heritage Propane in 2004, Mr. Warren served as Vice President of the general partner of ET Company I, Ltd., the entity that operated ETP’s midstream assets before it acquired Aquila, Inc.’s midstream assets, having served in that capacity since 1996.  From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Warren served as a director of Crosstex Energy, Inc. and from 1993 to 1996, he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and a director of Cornerstone Natural Gas, Inc.  Mr. Warren has more than 20 years of business experience in the energy industry.

Friends of Big Bend, Board of Directors

The board of directors now numbers 21 volunteers who live in all across Texas, as well as Macon, GA.

Board of Directors
Jack Lamkin - President
Bill McEntire - Treasurer
Steve Rode - VP, Fundraising
Loredia Potts - VP, Communications
Tolbert Greenwood - VP,Membership       
Dennis Kearns, Secretary                                                                     

Greg Brazaitis - Zoom Info on Greg Brazatis

Director of Business Development, Energy Transfer Partners , L.P. Dallas, TX
Larry Brumley
Kevin Buchanan
Reb Gregg
Steve Griffis
Russ Jewert
Rick Lannen
Kate Martin
Mike McShane
Jim Murrell
Harold Oliver
Jan Redford
Bill Stevens
Carroll Voss
C.A. Watson

[SHANEA]

I seem to remember that the Friends of Big Bend Board of Directors used to be numbered at 19, now it is 21?  I guess they made room for two more?  Dang, that is a huge board of directors to answer to and try to please. 

[TheWildWestGuy]

I think anyone who gives them enough money can probably be elected to the Board of Directors.   Do they really need that many after all?  It's curious that there is a connection between the two?  Good for conspiracy theories... TWWG

[SHANEA]

Good for conspiracy theories... TWWG

I love a good conspiracy theory, don't I Homero???

[homerboy2u]

Good for conspiracy theories... TWWG

I love a good conspiracy theory, don't I Homero???

Oh yes you do.....by all accounts remember this name: Illuminati . Extremely powerful secret group.

[SHANEA]

Dallas exec thinks he can find treasure in Lajitas, Texas

Mr. Leslie on Friday slashed prices on the hotel rooms and began charging $29 a night at the RV park, where he says it used to take a $100,000 membership to stay. A new chef has been hired to bring the restaurant things like chicken fried steak instead of $50 steaks.

Still has the same website up @ Lajitas