Renault Winery Set For Bankruptcy Auction

REUBEN KRAMER, Staff Writer
Attorneys for the bankrupt-but-still-open Renault Winery Resort and Golf asked a federal judge this week to schedule a Sept. 22 auction for virtually all of the property’s assets, including a 150-year-old vineyard billed as one of the oldest continuously operating wine producers in the United States.

The resort, which straddles Egg Harbor City and Galloway Township, filed for bankruptcy protection in November, having fallen behind on loans from mortgagee OceanFirst Bank. The bank obtained a $7.7 million mortgage foreclosure judgment against Renault last summer.

Renault borrowed from the bank in 2009 and 2010 on advice from the resort’s then-general manager, Chief Operating Officer Dennis Del Vecchio has said in court papers. The manager “advised ... (Renault) on a number of questionable financial decisions and transactions,” said Del Vecchio, who did not return a call for comment.

And Hurricane Sandy, which in 2012 forced the resort to temporarily close and chilled tourism throughout South Jersey, took a bite out of Renault’s revenue, which last year was between $6 million and $7 million, Del Vecchio said.

Offers are being solicited for the entire property or for each of three components: a restaurant and 54-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course, and a restaurant and 40-acre winery, said Hank Waida, managing director of Equity Partners HG, the investment banking firm running the auction.

“It all depends on what bids come in and what people are interested in, but if we have separate bids for the pieces, then we would bid those separately and see how high that goes,” he said.

No bids have been made, though the firm has received 34 “expressions of interest,” Waida said. The assumption, he said, is that the resort, or at least pieces of it, will be sold as a going concern.

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