Allen C. Harper, Ghost Town at Maggie Valley: Miami owners buy theme park out of bankruptcy: and Steve Shiver, too? by gimleteye

This is a story that doesn't add up, and so belongs with the long list of banking stories revolving around saving skin in the real estate collapse that require more in-depth investigation than blogs can provide. A bankruptcy court judge in North Carolina has approved a deal to allow the current owners of the failed theme park run by former Miami Dade county manager Steve Shiver to buy the park, erasing its creditors including many small local business vendors, owed more than $2.5 million. According to news reports, BB&T Bank-- that has recently planted its flag in South Florida-- would have to absorb a loss of at least $3 million from the prior $10 million mortgage. Where the bank will take $.70 cents on the dollar, local creditors-- many small businesses-- $.10 on the dollar. According to The Smoky Mountain News, "More than 200 businesses still owed money by Ghost Town would be left holding the bag, including local contractors and laborers who did work for the park and were never paid. Myriad Ghost Town supporters in Maggie Valley coughed up cash to help the amusement park get off the ground when it reopened. They were promised a stake in the company in exchange for their investment, but they, too, would be left with nothing." (Please click, 'read more')

The key figure is MIamian Allen C. Harper. Harper's business and political connections run through powerhouse real estate companies like Flager Development and Florida East Coast Industries, whose shareholders include Armando Codina.

Harper purchased Ghost Town at Maggie Valley, installing former county manager Steve Shiver as CEO, in 2006. He has now bought the company from bankruptcy through another entity; American Heritage Family Parks LLC. Who are the limited partners who are providing $7 million in new capital to chase after $20 million already invested is not clear, nor is the role of Shiver. The theme park has suffered through major controversies, chronicled on this blog, including a winter landslide that required a $1.3 federal taxpayer funded emergency investment. Liability for the mudslide has not been established, or, whether that liability now disappears that the company has emerged from bankruptcy under substantially similar ownership.

Here is what Forbes.com writes about Harper: "Allen C. Harper, 64, Chief Executive Officer of the American Heritage Railways since 1998. Director (Class III) since 2009.Mr. Harper served as Director on the Tri-County Rail Authority, a state-owned commuter railroad, from 1989 to 2005, and was Chairman of the Board for three terms. In 2003, Tri-County Rail was incorporated into the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, and in 2004 Mr. Harper was elected its Chairman. He also served as director of Florida East Coast Industries, Inc., a railroad and real estate company based in St. Augustine, Florida, for 12 years. In May 2001, Mr. Harper was appointed for the second time by Governor Bush to serve on the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority Board. Mr. Harper was an investor in, as well as an officer and member of Ghost Town Partners LLC, owner of Ghost Town in the Sky, a theme park that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 10, 2009. Mr. Harper was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the theme park or its parent company." Really? Given the theme park's trouble, that is not credible.

Harper is also a director of a major sprawl-inducing development company in Florida, Consolidated Tomoka. The publicly traded company is active in land development west of Interstate 95 in Delray Beach; an area hit very hard by the housing market crash. According to a recent SEC filing, "Mutual-fund manager Wintergreen Advisers wrote to the board on April 12 to state concerns about Consolidated Tomoka's proxy statement, including "a lack of adequate disclosure in several areas, as well as mischaracterizations of fact" on corporate-governance issues." Directors include former secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs Linda Shelley.

Harper is chairman emeritus of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realtors and owns several theme park railroads across the country. Local reporters should be digging deeper into the ownership records to find out what other Florida investors have a piece of Ghost Town.