Jeff Ostrowski
Alexandra Clough
Home > Real Time > Archives > 2008 > December > 12 > Entry
R.J. Gator’s asset sale finds no takers
Chalk up R.J. Gator’s as another victim of Florida’s recession. After two Chapter 11 filings in a year, the company’s owner is closing its five eateries in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast and converting the Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
In an effort to salvage the chain, owner J&D Restaurant Holdings staged a silent auction in October. Bids on the five-restaurant package started at $1.75 million. After that yielded no bids, there was another auction in November.
Daniel Mahalic, the agent at Capital Commercial Real Estate Group who handled the auctions, said he had 82 registered buyers but no bids.
“It was exciting, but nobody ponied up the money,” Mahalic said. “Nobody’s taking any money out of their pockets.”
That’s in spite of significant rent concessions from landlords. One owner of an R.J. Gator’s location in Palm Beach County was willing to slash the monthly rent from $20,000 to $12,500 and give three months free rent, Mahalic said.
With South Florida’s economy reeling, restaurateurs have decided now isn’t the time to invest.
“It’s just scary,” Mahalic said.
UPDATE at 4:20 p.m.: Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman approved R.J. Gator’s Chapter 7 and ended the chain’s leases in Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Fort Pierce and Vero Beach.
R.J. Gator’s owes the five landlords $700,000. An attorney for the Palm Beach Gardens location said his client already has a tenant lined up for the space.
Owner Kevin Dalton said he paid his 142 employees for their work through Monday — and told them to go directly to Wachovia to cash their checks. It’s unclear whether they’ll be paid for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“These are the worst economic times in my time,” Dalton said.
The bankruptcy doesn’t affect franchised R.J. Gator’s restaurants in Central and Southwest Florida, North Carolina and Texas.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Ostrowski
Comments
By Get in the Game
December 12, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
Just like WCI in the hey-days.
NO TAKERS.
But if you talk to auctioneers - houses are flying off the shelves.
Sure!
By Alfred from Boynton
December 12, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this
Went there once. No doughnuts. Never went back.
By Julia Child
December 13, 2008 1:29 AM | Link to this
No great loss to the dining public. Mediocre food, noisy and a stupidly named franchise. Should have been called a “CROCK OF SHI.”
By Get in the Game
December 13, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this
BTW - who said recession?
You only mean FL? Because the NATION is still not in recession…
The government is STILL not admitting that the US is in recession.
Germany - Yes.
Japan - Yes.
European nations - Yes.
America - still says No.
But hey GDP looks GREAT.
Keep SPENDING guys, so let’s keep BORROWING from Asia!
Financial slavery to Asia - cannot wait!
Spend, spend, spend.
By The franchise owner was there IGNORING everything ...jupiter
December 13, 2008 2:45 PM | Link to this
The service there was always a hit or miss crap shoot. Last time I went there was 2-3 years ago and got BAD service and a salad with wilted lettuce. Never stepped foot in there again.
Mediocre managers who don’t supervise their disinterested staff ultimately kill restaurants like this chain. When patrons get bad service multiple times, they simply don’t go back.
By Michael Fink
December 15, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this
We are in a recession, and have been in one for about a year now. Just hope it doesn’t become a depression.
This is an excellent article that everyone should read about housing and it’s historical price movements. Also, how we’ve still got some time to go before we hit a bottom. The bottom in our area is ~50% down on houses (sold for 400K in 2005, sells for 200K in 2010) much worse for condos (some/many of which are effectively worth 0 because of the lack of occupancy and the number of foreclosures pushing the maint costs through the roof for the foreseeable future).
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2008-12-12-homeprices_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip