Pike Family Nurseries has received four bids totaling $7.9 million for its assets, including one from Gary Pike, the son of the founder of the iconic garden chain, William "Pete" Pike.

One bidder, California-based Armstrong Garden Centers, wants the rights to the Pike name, which could jump-start its entry into the Southeast.

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)

The 15 Atlanta area stores will remain open during the auction.

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The bids, if approved by a federal bankrutpcy judge in Atlanta on Thursday, would divvy up the company, splitting its wholesale and retail divisions, and dice up the retail locations.

The auction went late into Tuesday night at the Midtown law offices of King & Spalding. So far, according to a document filed with the bankruptcy court, the auction yielded these bids:

• Armstrong bid nearly $5.2 million for a store in Charlotte and to use the "Pike Nursery" name, plus other retail locations and inventory assets.

• Geo. Schofield Co. bid $1.2 million for one store and the "hardscape inventory" of two other stores.

• Skinner Nurseries bid $1 million for the inventory of two Pike stores.

• And Gary Pike bid $490,000 for the assets of two Pike stores.

The fate of other retail locations has not been disclosed.

Pike Family Nurseries filed for bankruptcy in November, in part blaming Georgia's drought for lagging sales.

The company decided to pursue the auction this month. The company is no longer owned by the Pike family but is held by Roark Capital Group. The 15 Atlanta area stores will remain open during the auction.

Several creditors have objected to the bids, including Bank of America and PNC Bank. The latter complained in its court filing that the amounts offered didn't reflect the value of store leases and inventory.

For example, the bank says the inventory Gary Pike wants to buy for $490,000 is really worth $863,221.

Also, the bank claims that if all the bids are accepted, it has no assurance it will be paid for $2 million in accounts receivable and $700,000 for inventory at a Birmingham store.

The bankruptcy judge, Mary Grace Diehl, will have to decide if the bids have fallen short or didn't follow procedure, said bankruptcy attorney John A. Christy with Schreeder Wheeler & Flint in Atlanta, who is not involved in the case.

Aside from that, however, the judge could be hard-pressed to throw out the bids if unsecured creditors have given them the thumbs up, Christy said.

"I've got to believe that it's tough to sell a nursery in a drought," Christy said. And don't forget the housing market, he said.

Still, he said, buying an established Atlanta brand name like Pike is worth a lot. "It's a known quantity," he said. "Everybody knows Pike's here."

-- Researcher Nisa Asokan contributed to this article.