Empire Ranch golf complex sale in works

Imminent sale of the Empire Ranch Golf Course complex for $3.5 million is anticipated, and the buyer is being made aware of Carson City government’s need to continue disposing of treated effluent there.

Carson City District Attorney Jason Woodbury said an offer came at an Aug. 25 hearing in the District of Nevada U.S. Bankruptcy Court, that escrow is expected to be done by week’s end and barring an unforeseen hitch the deal should close. In a court document, the buyer is identified as Cord Trading, LLC, on behalf of Carson Creek Resort, Inc.

“The court authorized that sale pursuant to the court’s order that escrow close by (Friday) Sept. 4,” said Woodbury. Asked about the purchasing party or group, Woodbury said that remains murky. As he put it: “We, quite frankly, don’t know a lot about them.”

What Woodbury could say was the Carson City interest in continuing to use treated wastewater effluent on Empire Ranch land was being conveyed by the court to the buyers to make certain the course owner understands the city has a contractual and “legitimate interest that there is no interruption of service.”

The city provides effluent for watering prison farm land and three golf course complexes, among them the 27 holes at Empire Ranch, and city officials maintain such access is needed because federal clean water dictates mean effluent can’t go into the Carson River. Despite a shortage of such effluent in recent summers, city officials need land to distribute it should more be generated post-drought or with city growth.

“We’re not anticipating any interruption,” Woodbury said of Empire Ranch.

Woodbury said the city was owed back property taxes and utility payments, which have been taken care of as well, and so city government technically also was a creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings involving Dwight Millard of Empire Ranch, debtor and seller.

Other creditors also are involved in those proceedings, and Woodbury said some may take a financial “haircut” as the payments owed exceed the $3.5 million price. Documents indicate some $3.8 million was claimed against the property.

An example was in one court document filed by Nina Loucks on behalf of the Loucks Family Trust, In it she said she reduced her original claim in May of $207,625 to $112,500 at the Aug. 25 court hearing. Woodbury said the court’s final documents likely will detail all such financial adjustments involving creditors.

In her notice of a willingness to take less, Loucks referred to the motion to sell the course to “Clear Creek Resort” for $3.5 million, but the main filing and summary of proposed sale referred to conveying the debtor’s assets to a firm called Carson Creek Resort, Inc. Woodbury said none of the buyers had appeared at the late August hearing.

Carson Creek Resort, Inc., in business entity documents obtained online, had listed a file date of July 23 with a registered agent named United States Corporation Agents, Inc., in Las Vegas. The officers and directors all were listed at an address in Ladera Ranch, Calif.

Listed at an address in that community of Orange County, Calf., were: president, treasurer and director, John Dunn; secretary and director, Christine Dunn; and directors Richard Wolf, Andy Diep and Shri Doraiswamy. Additional research on the directors and officers turned up only Doraiswamy also was listed as executive vice president of Cord Trading, LLC, the buyer listed on behalf of Carson Creek Resort.

Telephone call efforts Tuesday to contact Millard and an attorney familiar with the filings proved unsuccessful.