US: Bankrupt northern Colorado organic farm prepares for auction

It remained unclear last Tuesday - a day before a bankruptcy trustee was set to auction more than 770 acres of land leases and a laundry list of other property belonging to Grant Family Farms - whether anyone intended to buy all of it.

But Localization Partners, a consortium of investors who last year fronted about $1.5 million to prevent Grant's eventual bankruptcy, signaled it wanted the leases and brand names.

LP and its 20 members have pledged $30,000, as well as more than $150,000 to cover lease agreements on nine parcels of land, many of which still have crops.

Andy Grant, owner of the Wellington-based farm, in an e-mail called the auction a tragedy and said a "leading organic farm in the US (is) torn brick by brick after its best year ever."

"We feel terrible," Grant said.

Bidders wanting to compete against LP's bid had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to register with bankruptcy trustee Joli Lofstedt at her Louisville offices.

Lofstedt and her attorney, Tom Connolly, did not respond to requests throughout the day for information.

Interested bidders needed to deliver a $5,000 earnest deposit to bid on the leases and intangible property, $4,000 to bid only on the leases and $1,000 for the intangible property only.

The auction is set for 1 pm Wednesday at the offices of Connolly, Rosania & Lofstedt in Louisville. A judge must approve the outcome at a special hearing on April 11th.

Among the intangible items, were a number of names, including Grant Family Farms, Grant Family Farms Certified Organic Colorado, Owl Canyon, Rocky Mountain Sweet and Colorado's Finest.

Also at auction is the operation's website domain, Grantfarms.com and a number of databases of customer information.

Efforts to reach members of LP or its ownership, at Transition Colorado, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

LP essentially operated Grant Family Farms last year after the bailout loan, delivering products to people who had bought into the company's Community-Supported Agriculture program.

CSAs collect membership funds from people before a growing season, to offset the cost of farming in return for a share of the harvest.

Grant's was one of the nation's first organic CSAs and one of its biggest at more than 4,000 members. The company was awash in nearly $6.9 million of debt with $3.7 million in assets.

Source:denverpost.com