Former owners of the Daisy Flour Mill file Chapter 7 with $1 million in debt

The former owners of the Daisy Flour Mill have filed bankruptcy papers stating approximately $1 million in debt.
James and Colleen Sauer filed a joint personal Chapter 7 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rochester on May 10. The petition names James Sauer as president of Daisy Flour Mill Inc. and JHS Associates LLC, and Colleen Sauer as secretary-treasurer of JHS. JHS owns properties listed as assets in the couple’s filing. The filing states assets of roughly $773,025 against debts of slightly more than $1 million.
The Sauers could not be reached for comment. Their bankruptcy attorney, Louis Ryen of Lacey Katzen LLP, could not be reached for comment.
Located in Penfield on Irondequoit Creek in a 157-year-old former grist mill abutting Ellison Park, the Daisy Flour Mill long has been a popular local eatery and event venue.
The Sauers shut the restaurant’s doors in November, announcing the venue would be transferred to an unnamed catering and event operator. Their bankruptcy filing comes roughly a month after they signed the Daisy Flour Mill building at 1880 Blossom Road over to Gatherings at the Daisy Flour Mill LLC.
The Gatherings Catering Co. refurbished the Daisy Flour Mill and reopened the historic mill building as a meeting and event venue May 9, Gatherings principal Christopher Steubing said.
The catering company is planning to reopen the Daisy Flour Mill as a restaurant but only for one day a week, Steubing said. He plans to initiate a la carte service at the Daisy Flour Mill on Thursday evenings or for Friday-night fish fries by the summer’s end. He has not set a definite date to kick off the restaurant service or decided which day it will open for public dining.
Gatherings also owns the Senator’s Mansion in Churchville, which it runs as an upscale meeting and events venue. For several years it also has staged events at the Inn on Broadway, but the firm plans to discontinue service there when its lease on space at the downtown hotel expires at the end of June, Steubing said.
A deed filed with the Monroe County Clerk in March shows that Gatherings paid $550,000 for the Daisy Flour Mill property. Gatherings paid an additional $200,000 to the Sauers for the restaurant’s fixtures and equipment, Steubing said.
Secured mortgages on the Sauers’ $300,000 residence in Penfield and on parcels and four homes adjacent to the Daisy Flour Mill on Blossom Road account for some $700,000 of the couple’s liabilities. The stated market value of the property is roughly equal to that amount and accounts for the bulk of assets the couple lists in the petition. Business debt related to the Daisy Flour Mill accounts for virtually all of the nearly $300,000 in unsecured debt, the Sauers state.
The Sauers state in their bankruptcy filing that they plan to keep their home and the Blossom Road properties. James Sauer works as a real estate agent for Realty USA Rick Leasure and Colleen Sauer is receiving disability payments, the filing states.
([email protected] / 585-546-8303)

05/27/05 (C) Rochester Business Journal