Still Waters Resort, Dadeville, is among property the bankrupt Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA) now has for sale.
It is unpredictable what will happen to the property once sold.
According to Lorri Paetz of the foundation, BFA is currently “in the process of beginning to get competitive bids” on the Dadeville property. This is the only Alabama property owned by BFA.
This action is part of a liquidation plan filed Feb. 18 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. That announcement comes the same day foundation officials filed a $400 million lawsuit against their former executives, lawyers and the foundation’s longtime accounting firm, Arthur Anderson.
Investors in the BFA could expect to receive about 40 cents on the dollar as early as June under the plan.
A spokesman for the BFA estimated the foundation’s assets will bring between $215 million and $220 million when sold. That falls short of the $590 million the foundation owes to about 11,000 investors.
Many of the investors affected are senior citizens.
However, that amount could increase considerably, possibly by enough to repay the entire $590 million owed to investors, if the lawsuit against former BFA officials and their lawyers and accountants is successful.
“Obviously, our hope is that everybody will get everything back, but I can’t speculate on how the lawsuit will turn out,” said Jock Patton, chairman of the foundation’s restructuring committee.
The liquidation plan, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix, called for an “orderly disposition of assets” of the foundation, many of which are in real estate.
The plan requires bankruptcy court approval and investors will vote on the matter, according to BFA spokesman Lew Phelps.
The plan calls for the “immediate sale” of three properties in Alabama, Hawaii and Phoenix. The sale is expected to generate a substantial payout to investors whose money has been frozen in BFA accounts since August.
Phelps declined to disclose the estimated worth of the three properties to be sold at auction which include Pleasant Point, a 7,000-acre master-planned community near Phoenix, Ariz.
In August 1999, the BFA put a temporary freeze on the assets of its investors after state regulators ordered the foundation to cease “fraudulent security sales.” (BP)
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