Island Tan River Ranch - Closed

Island Tan River Ranch is now Closed for business.

Island Tan River Ranch entered into an agreement with a local Real Estate Agency to list the property located at 107 Stonemont, Rd know as Island Tan River Ranch on February 20, 2014. To our surprise we had an offer and a contract to purchase the property the same day.

The buyer and his wife then expressed an interest in purchasing not only the property but also the tanning business and all the fixtures. We came to an agreement thereafter to sale the building and the tanning business to the same buyer. In the agreement we were required to continue to operate the business without any changes. This was by way of agreement, since they wanted to keep the business going forward. Furthermore, the buyer’s wife began spending time in the store learning the business. Some of you most likely saw her and spoke to her; she was in the store since she was buying the business.

The sale was scheduled to close on March 11, 2014, which was the next Tuesday. Then I received this email from my realtor on March 8, 2014 which was a Saturday.


I just received a call from Al.

Buyer is going to proceed with sale of building, but nothing else. He wanted you to know so you could start moving the equipment.

If I hear anything else, I'll let you know.

Debbie

Debbie Deano Foreman
(337)344-2006
Keaty Real Estate
350 Doucet Rd
Lafayette, LA
Licensed Real Estate agent in state of Louisiana

This left me two days to make many decision as to what my options were, it was my hope that the buyer would come back around. I was admitted to our lady of Lourdes hospital with cardiac problems and treated for the next couple of days. This accounts for why I was not in the tanning salon to open it on that Monday and Tuesday as scheduled. The store remained close until the girls could get there at 3:00 pm to open the store.

On Tuesday the 11th 2014 the day of the closing I was still in the hospital, the closing attorney was going to bring the paper work up to the hospital for me to sign. I was also informed that I had to turn over the keys at the time of closing and I had to close the business. I offered to rent the property from the new owner in order to wind down the business in an orderly manner, but the buyer was not agreeable to leasing.

I had literally 2 hours to walk in to the store tell the girls what had happen and to close the store. This is how much notice that I had. I went to visit with the owner of Tropic Tan. She was agreeable to honoring the tanning packages in order to get our customer list. This was a great deal for her and something that we ourselves had done in the past. I thought it was a great deal for Tropic Tan, I was handing her $200,000 in annual revenues in exchange for honoring our tanning packages. I am not sure what happen.


My family and I invested all that we had into this business and struggled year after year to provide the very best service to Lafayette. To the point of filling for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2007, at which time we lost our home that we built during this bankruptcy and reorganized the tanning salon in order to keep it open. We worked as hard as we could to hold on to this property as to it was all that we had and we had all our money invested into it. But year after year the sales continued to drop, it was harder and harder to get the price that we needed in order to cash flow the salon. We were constantly having to sale packages at reduced prices to keep customer coming in.

Which led to the demises of the business, the business did not close because it was cash flush, but because it was not cash flowing. I would not have handled it in this manner. But I was depending on the buyer to uphold his side of the agreement which I had no control over. Then I depended on Tropic Tan to honor the packages which they agreed to do.

The girls working the salon, nor I knew that the buyer was going to back out hours before the sale. These are the facts as they happen.


Pacific Tan, LLC
DBA Island Tan River Ranch