VOL 6 No. 28
ww www.fbindependent.com .fbindependent.com
Phone: 281-980-6745
FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Quail Valley Golf Course, County plans for mobility City Centre show mixed results BARBARA FULENWIDER banquets and events, beverage bond election ByMissouri City’s first budget cart operations and general and
Quail Valley Garden of the Month. July with Independence Day is a great month for the Red, White & Blue, our flag and other patriotic symbols. Leslie & Fred Gegen’s garden at 3110 Robinson Road shows how to incorporate seasonal art into a landscape full of color with Geraniums, Lantana, Pentas, Ixora, plus the textures and colors of Bottlebrush, Purple Fountain Grass and terrific examples of how to use twining vines on a trellis away from the wall in front of French drains. Extensive re-landscaping, as well as re-modeling inside, has once again reinvigorated the home and garden. Their ideas and eye for updating inspired Leslie’s father to buy a couple of blocks away and re-do. The Gegens received a plant from Flowers by Adela and a Certificate from the Quail Valley Garden Club, an educational and community service garden club for those interested in gardening. Visit http://traction.typepad.com/QVGC .
Fort Bend County Commissioners Court is planning to hold a mobility bond election in November. County Judge Bob Hebert said the county could issue bonds valued at $150 million without raising the taxes. Consequently, he has asked the four commissioners to prepare a list of projects to be included in the bond election. In the first round, the four commissioners came up with a list and the total cost of the mobility projects touched $900 million. The commissioners have again gone back to the drawing board and are in the process of trimming their lists to the bare minimum, to fit within the proposed limit of $150 million.
B. K. Carter
Sugar Land Wine & Food Affair wins top honors
Beverly K. Carter, 72, founder of Fort Bend Star newspaper, in Fort Bend County, died on Saturday, July 6. See obituary on Page 3.
for the Golf Courses at Quail Valley and new City Centre shows that the two city facilities are likely to break even in two years. The fiscal year 2014 budget, presented to directors of the Recreation and Leisure Local Government Corp., was based on six months of revenues and expenses that occurred in 2013. Totals from the past six months of the 2012-13 fiscal year were used because the City Centre didn’t open until the second quarter of the past fiscal year. Tyson Stittleburg, golf course and recreation center general manager, reminded corporation directors at their meeting last month that the 2012-13 budget was based on the City Centre being open for that entire fiscal year budget and it was not. The City Centre will be fully operational during the FY 2014 budget, and Stittleburg told directors that based on current numbers he expects the golf course and center will break even within two years. The budget Stittleburg provided the directors -- Mayor Allen Owen and six city councilmen – breaks down each department individually, but he told them “none of these departments operates independently from the others and each compliments the others throughout the organization.” The eight departments are golf operations, golf cart operations, practice range, golf shop merchandise, food and beverage (Bluebonnet Grille),
administrative. Stittleburg noted the golf operations as whole is currently meeting the budget and there is enough revenue to cover all expenses. The golf cart operations is typically the most profitable division of a golf course. Owen summarized the budget by stating that with all the adjustments there would be a loss of $151,000 for this fiscal year. Golf operations, which include revenues for daily and annual green fees, is the largest revenue producer of all of the operational areas, Stittleburg said. The new budget puts revenues from green fees ($1,556,955), range fees ($89,872), pro shop sales ($196,661), and cart rentals ($582,863) at a total of $2,426,351. The golf club manager said the largest expense for the operations department includes a percentage of the golf shop employees and golf course starter wages, office supplies for the golf operations, golf course maintenance, bank and credit card fees for golf operations and a percentage of utility costs. Operations expenses are at $1,634,543. He noted that the single most costly expense is maintaining two golf courses at $1,230,000 annually. Food and beverages are in the budget at a total of $1,312,719 with the Bluebonnet Grille accounting for $370,582 in dollars spent on food and non-alcoholic drinks See GOLF, Page 3
Wallace-Bajjali’s Waco project files for bankruptcy
L- R Traci Buczo, Matthew Ferraro, Krystal Peay, Fayth Burgin, Jan-Michael Jenkins, Farrah Gandhi, Keri Schmidt & David Crowl. Photo LARRY PULLEN. The Fort Bend Chamber of siveness of the overall project. University of Houston.” On the coattails of the treCommerce took home the first Judges identified whether the place award for its marketing campaign captured the “voice” mendous success of this year’s program on the tenth annual of the chamber, community or festival, the Sugar Land Wine celebration of the Sugar Land specific project it represented. & Food Affair has announced “We are so pleased to be that next year’s event will be Wine & Food Affair (sugarlandwineandfoodaffair.com), recognized for our marketing held from April 23 to 27, 2014. presented at the Texas Cham- efforts in bringing awareness ber of Commerce Executive to this wonderful non-profit Conference Annual Media event,” said Keri Schmidt, president of the Fort Bend Awards on June 25, 2013. Reflecting the significance Chamber of Commerce and of this first-place honor, the founder of the Sugar Land Fort Bend Chamber of Com- Wine & Food Affair. “We recently celebrated our merce competed against all of the larger chambers in Texas, tenth annual festival, breaking most of which have substan- several records from previous years. We will strive to further tially greater budgets. Marketing campaigns were our fund-raising for the afjudged on a wide range of cri- fair’s beneficiary, the Conrad teria: type of media used, the N. Hilton College of Hotel and call to action and the cohe- Restaurant Management at the
Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, based in Sugar Land, owners of the River Square Center mixed-use complex in downtown Waco, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of defaulting on a loan from Wells Fargo Bank, Waco Tribune reported on July 8. The company is working through the bankruptcy filing while finding tenants for vacancies that reportedly pushed them to the brink of foreclosure on at least two occasions, the report said. Today, the center at South Second Street and Mary Avenue, known for its array of restaurants as well as a collection of shops called Spice Village, is 93 percent occupied
and “performing well,” Dave Wallace, a partner in Wallace Bajjali, told the newspaper. But the bankruptcy process continues, with a hearing scheduled for July 22 in Houston. “Both sides will be brought together to talk about our plan of reorganization,” said Steven Prevost, Wallace Bajjali Development Partners’ chief financial officer. Court documents report River Square Center lost several tenants in a 24-month period, placing a drain on the finances of Wallace Bajjali. “Since the debtor did not have adequate funds to cover the unexpected releasing costs, the principals covered the majority of these costs out-of-
pocket,” Wallace Bajjali said in a disclosure statement included in the bankruptcy filing. “By late 2011, however, the cumulative effect of the drain caused the debtor to be late on a couple of payments, which resulted in the assessment of default interest and late fees. Even though the debtor subsequently made payments in full and on time, LNR Partners applied the payments to default interest and late fees, which left the loan constantly in default and subject to ever-increasing late charges.” LNR Partners, a Miamibased real estate entity, is serving as an agent of Wells Fargo Bank during the foreclosure and bankruptcy process. .
Fiesta Market Place opens on July 17 Fiesta Mart will open its new grocery store under the name Fiesta Market Place in Sugar Creek. The new store is set to open on July 17 at the former Gerland’s location at 13833 Southwest Freeway in Sugar Land. The store is approximately 41,000 square feet. The Sugar Land store will be distinctly different from the other Fiesta Marts in that it does not display the popular mascot, the cartoon parrot. In 2004, Fiesta Mart was acquired by Grocers Supply, a family-owned Houston-based wholesale groceries distributor. Gerland, parent company of Food Fair, Food Town and Grand Market, is now being acquired by Grocers Supply, which owns Fiesta Mart, among other stores.