Thomas Ragan
Equipment is ready to roll, but the bowling alley sits quiet.
It was a big ol’ gutter ball in early September, as the developers of the biggest building in the Santa Fe Railyard filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
It could take anywhere from months to years before the issue is resolved, and the long-hyped bowling alley—with its arcade and restaurant and brewpub—is a mere symptom of the greater problem that will now play out in federal court.
The idea is to take a step back, take a deep breath and seek legal recourse to reorganize the Railyard Co. LLC, Rick Jaramillo, one of four partners in the firm, tells SFR this week.
They hope to come up with some sort of realistic payment plan to make good on the estimated $9.67 million loan that went into refinancing the Market Station building—a debt that the group is incapable of paying right now.
The bowling alley idea has been rolling since 2007, says Jaramillo, who along with Marcos Gonzales, Allen Branch, and brothers Steve and David Duran managed to secure a $14 million loan to build the 90,000-square-foot structure atop an underground parking garage. Branch is no longer involved.
Anchored by REI, it also houses a Verizon Wireless store, Marvelous Hair Designs, Daniella's, a boutique and apparel store, and more recently, city offices. Until early this year, it also hosted a Flying Star restaurant.
Jaramillo says Railyard Co. put up $6.3 million of its own money in Market Station, with $2.3 million going toward turning the bowling alley into an entertainment venue with a dance floor and live music on the second floor.
But he says that over the years, it has become a monkey on their backs. Not only did the group have a hard time luring a national operator, but local prospects pulled out as well, leading to a continual change of concepts and names, with the Railyard Co. LLC ultimately taking over as operator.
It's gone from Ringside Lounge to Lucky Strike to Strike Bowl & Brew, all without ever actually opening, although nearly a half-million dollars in equipment, from bowling balls to bowling pins to restaurant equipment, sits unused these days, at the ready.
After Flying Star pulled out of Market Station, having to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy itself, the company partnered with Enrique Guerrero, of Bang Bite fame, to serve as a consultant and oversee food operations. Yet a few months later, Guerrero said he was out of the picture.
Jaramillo and fellow partners are now hoping to roll a strike with the court's help. The heavy lifting in the legal action now falls to William Davis of Davis and Associates. Davis tells SFR that he hopes to get the company back on track, although when exactly is anybody's guess.
"Bankruptcy under Chapter 11 is one way of describing it," says Davis, who has handled bankruptcy law in New Mexico for more than three decades. "But another less pejorative term might be business organization, and in some of these cases…sometimes not all the money is repaid. In some cases only a portion is, and the reorganization gives them an opportunity to get back in business."
And the developers—all hometown guys who love sports and who have backgrounds in construction and real estate—are trying to remain optimistic in what could be the final frame of a project that has cost them time, energy and, now, debt.
It's a nasty word for the developers, who brought Walgreens to Airport Road and also joined other investors in buying the Marian Hall at the old St. Vincent Hospital downtown in 2000 (selling it in 2007 to the Missouri-based Drury hotel chain).
They used that success as a springboard to make Market Station a reality, but not without snarls. The company and the city sparred over underground parking, which led to an out-of-court settlement agreement that saw the city buy a condo that takes up most of the building's the second floor.
Jaramillo suggests, however, that it's not his firm that failed here. In a statement to SFR, he claims that the city violated the settlement agreement; he adds that a capital funding venture fell through and the Railyard's leasing office hasn't worked with the group to help bring in a national operator to run the bowling alley.
It's long been the city's preference to tip the scales for local businesses, in keeping with the spirit of the Railyard. Richard Czoski, director of the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp., the nonprofit in charge of the leasing, claims that even so, its board did grant permission for a national operator on the site.
And while accusations fly and minor setbacks occur in what has become a revolving door of tenants at Market Station, Czoski says the 37 acres of commercial property that comprise the Railyard are holding up just fine.
With only six parcels now left to lease out of the initial 44, Czoski says the nonprofit is turning to website marketing while keeping in touch with local real estate companies in the hopes of filling what's left.
"It's intended to be a community-based development project with emphasis on local business," he says. "It's not a traditional retail center like Albuquerque's Uptown. It's becoming the contemporary arts center of Santa Fe."
The bowling alley was reportedly substantially complete more than a year ago and has seen its share of practice runs, with one city employee next door remarking that he heard the crash of bowling balls and pins dropping from time to time.
But there was never the big debut, and now the "soon-to-be-opened bowling alley" has become the butt of running jokes. With six years having passed since the Silva Lanes shut down, Santa Fe has perhaps just grown accustomed to a bowling void.
Jaramillo says he has heard it all before, and he deflects the criticism like that phantom pin that refuses to drop because it's sitting directly behind another pin, which ends up taking the brunt of the ball.
"We took the bait on the Railyard, and now we're kinda hurting as a result," Jaramillo tells SFR. "But we're confident that it's going to open. It's got to. We've got too much of our own money invested in it, so we're opening it if it's the last thing we do."
