Sale of Double JJ finalized

Wed, Jul 1, 2009

ROTHBURY (AP) — The sale of the Double JJ Ranch & Resort in Oceana County to an investment group has been finalized.

The transaction completed Tuesday came only two days before the second annual Rothbury music festival gets under way at the resort. The festival runs Thursday through Sunday.

Progressive Resorts LLC of Michigan, an affiliate of Erie, Pa.-based American Resort Management LLC, is the new owner.

Progressive Resorts has said it wants to restore the more than 1,200-acre Double JJ to a functioning guest ranch in the next few weeks and rehire hundreds of ranch employees.

Established in 1937, the ranch has offered golf, an indoor water park, horseback riding, snow tubing, dog sledding, a family entertainment center, old western town and specialty restaurants.

Dave Distel, managing director of turnaround and financial consulting firm O'Keefe and Associates in Grand Rapids, managed the sale as restructuring financial officer for the resort. He said his firm assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations at the ranch beginning in August 2008, shortly after the property fell into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 trustee, Thomas Bruinsma, was appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

"Convincing the Rothbury music festival to stay with the resort during the hardship of Chapter 11 was a major accomplishment for the Double JJ," Distel said Tuesday. "If the resort had been sold in pieces, or if it had become insolvent while attempting to re-organize, I don't believe there would have been a future for the festival or so many ranch employees."