Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 17, 2014
After 41 years under one ownership, the iconic White Fence Farm in Lakewood has been sold. Restaurant veterans Craig Caldwell and Tom Piercy purchased the family style farm dinner institution with about 32,000 square feet of buildings on about eight acres at 6263 W. Jewell Ave. The price wasn’t released, but records show it was purchased for $5.95 million by P&C Family Farms Restaurants LLC. Manor House Properties LLC, headed by Charlie Wilson, who was the founder of the popular restaurant, sold it. “I was just talking to Charlie Wilson and he gave me an update – they sold more than 6.5 million chicken dinners during the past 41 years,” said Craig Caldwell, part of the duo that bought the White Fence Farm. The White Fence Farm, one of only two in the nation, opened its doors on July 17, 1973. Wilson and other family members operated the restaurant, on a portion of what initially was the 80-acre Wilson Farm, a working hay and cattle ranch. They have run it ever since. The new owners don’t plan to make any changes to the operation. “The only thing that is going tochange is that we will be open in January,” Caldwell said. “Charlie had it open 11 months of the year; he closed it in January to give his family and his employees a month off,” he said. Caldwell learned that it was for sale about six months ago, after he received a phone call from a longtime friend, Bob Leino, who was listing it with fellow Fuller Real Estate brokers Andrew Dodgen and Ian Elfner. Guy Gibson of the Colorado National Bank, arranged a U.S. Small Business Administration loan for the purchase. Caldwell previously owned the Blue Goose tavern in Glendale and a number of sports bars and restaurants in Denver, including Thirty’s, Brooklyn’s and the Blake Street Baseball Club near Coors Field. “It has been around for 41 years, it is a family restaurant and a wholesome place,” Caldwell said about the White Fence Farm. “Places like that do not come around very often and you (rarely) get an opportunity to be part of something that is so incredible,” Caldwell said. Caldwell currently handles the food and beverage operation for six golf courses, including City Park, Kennedy, Overland Park, Willis Case, Broken Key in Englewood and Key on the Green in Evergreen. In the 1990s when he owned the Blake Street Baseball Club, Piercy owned the Splinters from the Pine, down the street. The two often ate lunch at each other’s establishments. “I hadn’t seen Tom in a long time and we ran into each other at the Key on the Green in Evergreen and we decided to eat at the restaurant there,” Caldwell said. Piercy, now president of Spurs Capital, grew up in Joliet, Illinois, near where the nation’s first White Fence Farms opened in Romeoville, Illinois, in the 1920s. “Tom asked me what I was doing and when I told him I was thinking of buying the White Fence Farm, his face lit up like a Christmas tree,” Caldwell said. The two decided to buy it together. They are the perfect buyers for White Fence Farm, Leino said. “Every now and then, you work with wonderful buyers and with wonderful sellers,” Leino said. “In this case, everyone walked away from the closing table happy,” Leino said. However, Leino had to market the property on the down-low, because Wilson didn’t want the word to get out to his employees, many of whom had been with him for decades, to get wind of the sale and become worried, he said. “I was not allowed to put it on CoStar or LoopNet or create a brochure and send it out broadly,” he said. Instead, he had to contact prospective buyers individually. “Everyone who looked at it had to sign a very strict confidentiality agreement,” Leino said. Given the size of the property Wilson might have been able to sell it for more if he sold it to a developer that would raze the buildings and redevelop it, he said. “That’s quite possible,” Leino said. “Knowing Charlie, he never would have sold it to a developer,” even for more dollars. In fact, Leino said one person was interested in buying it who planned a different use than White Fence Farm, which would have meant slashing about half the staff. “I know Charlie would have turned him down,” no matter what the price, Leino said. In addition to keeping White Fence Farm open during January, Leino said he suspects the new owners also will open on Mondays. “Charlie closed it on Monday to give his staff time off after a busy weekend,” Leino said. In addition to the dining area, “they sell a wide variety of retail, from clothing and stuffed toys, jams and jellies and fudge,” Leino said. “While you are waiting for dinner on a Friday or Saturday night, the kids can go to the petting zoo … it’s really fun. Kind of a touch of Disney in Lakewood,” Leino said. Wilson was as picky about the buyers as he was about the quality of his chicken dinners. “It took me a long time to find the right owner,” Wilson said. While he spoke to several prospective buyers, “it never felt right until I met Tom and Craig.” He said Piercy had childhood memories similar to his own. “He understands the joy, challenges and surprises,” Wilson said. “I never wanted this place to grow stale and old; I needed someone with enthusiasm and innovation and these guys were perfect.”