Earlier this year, Mr. Smith's dream officially ended in Beautiful views yes. Dec. 22, 2007 - LAJITAS, Texas -- Not even $100 million, Farming along the narrow floodplain of the river served to bring in more families, and by 1912 the town had a store, a saloon, a school with fifty pupils, and a customhouse. Other bidders dropped out early and headed for the elevators, including an eight-man team of blue-suited lawyers representing a hotelier, followed by a couple of South Texas hunting buddies with fat wallets in the back pockets of their Wranglers. http://www.dallasnews.com. Faces age faster in the desert, the skin browning and creasing and toughening up in ways that city and suburban dwellers dont have to worry about. RV park, where he says it used to take a $100,000 membership to stay. to come back with his 5-year-old son. Who Owns Lajitas Golf Resort by Joshua|Published August 25, 2019 The Lajitas Golf Resort is a full-service golf resort and spa located in the Big Bend region of West Texas. Then, this summer, after resort revenues failed to live up to the terms of the loan, the lender posted the property for foreclosure, and Lajitas filed for Chapter 11 protection. She and her husband have since purchased the place. Its dangerous. But its a thin margin to begin with, and it just didnt play out for him., The idea that the desert could somehow be softened gets at a practical divide that would prove even wider. In mid-October, Lajitas was back up for sale. the handmade home of Collie Ryan. property, Mr. Warren plans a largely hands-off approach. The decision-making rule of thumb so popular in modern businessthat managers should ask for forgiveness, not permissionwas taken to its untenable extreme. Smith and a group of hastily scraped-together investors. A short time later, he returned on his jet and to Dallas. Lajitas Golf Resort. There was no plan at all, no directions from above. She also had no way of knowing about the rest of the nights events. When I go down there now, all I see are a few workers, but theyre not allowed to talk to anybody. The excellent bread pudding provided some redemption, but not enough to justify a $190 bill. Dallas sold the statue for $1.4 million in June after the City Council decided to auction it off. The outing had been arranged in part to show me the way the new folks in Lajitas were being accepted in the community. Projects were undertaken with designs drawn over lunch on place mats. Order your test online and receive your donor/registration pass by email. Ms. Ryan said the area is like a space station, big and It's a place where many have long come to get away from material excess Please be sure to check back frequently as this journey continues. Hundreds of trees, including pears and plums that had no business being in the desert, were ordered before there was a plan to plant them and then planted before there was a way to water them. She paints mandalas on old hubcaps to make a little Dallas Robert E. Lee statue has a new home. It was closed temporarily in 1910, reopened in 1916, and closed permanently in 1939. The name Lajitas is Spanish for little flat rocks and refers to the Boquillas limestone of the area. [5] The deal was complete, except for a few papers that remained to be His dad, Rex, a Brewster County commissioner, owned Lajitas for nearly thirty years before selling it to Mischer in 1977. When I met him for a quick lunch in Alpine in October, his memories of the old store grew the conversation to two hours. Despite all this, Smith never did manage to get people to come in meaningful numbers, and when I stayed there in October, I understood why. Rooms were scattered all over the grounds, along the boardwalk, on the golf course, and across Ranch Road 170, driving up operating costs. Otherwise youre just buying dirt.. Copyright 2023, D Magazine Partners, Inc. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. They were then removed from the area by the Apache and Comanche tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. I think that's the biggest thing that's It is named for his son. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. So life went in Lajitas, through the end of Iveys tenure in 1993, right up until Mischer sold out to Smith. Lajitas Golf Resort accepts credit cards. Keep in mind that the second is a somewhat further drive due to the fact that youll need to take a roundabout route to get thereits not nearly as accessible as it looks on a map! When I bought the Ghost Town, I wanted to make it a place you needed to go to if you were in Big Bend. Lajitas Golf Resort has been welcoming Booking.com guests since Jan 27, 2014 Most popular amenities Outdoor swimming pool Free WiFi Free parking Non-smoking rooms Candelilla Facilities for disabled guests Fitness center Spa Family rooms Bar Property Highlights Top Location: Highly rated by recent guests (8.7) Free Parking Available On Site When I asked him what would happen if his dream didnt work, he said, Well, at least me and my friends will have a really nice golf course to play. (Smith declined to be interviewed for this article, and Texas Monthly happens to be one of his unsecured creditors, owed $35,000 for unpaid advertising.). [2][3][4][6] He has been the co-chairman and co-CEO of Energy Transfer Partners since 2007. He sat me down at a table with a guy in his late-thirties named Dennis, who was a carpenter on the crew redoing the lobby of the Badlands Hotel. They should be selling its history and its culture. Its previous owner, Austin multimillionaire Steve Smith, lavished $100 million to turn the property into an exclusive refuge for the rich, with an 18-hole bentgrass golf course, upscale restaurants, old-world bar, 92 luxury rooms and Mayor Clay Henry, a beer-drinking goat. it made people feel nervous," she said. In the early days of the expansion, a number of Smiths captains went into the Starlight Theatre in Terlingua for dinner. Remote Lajitas Golf Resort -- which sits very near the Mexican border, some 470 miles west of San Antonio -- is the kind of place where the tee sheet never gets too stacked. kitchen and outdoor shower -- the woman who says she doesn't have old-world bar, 92 luxury rooms and Mayor Clay Henry, a beer-drinking Any idea Dennis came up with was worth a try. [2] He is a former co-chairman of Le Gp, OEC Compression. Smiths money was the safety net, the answer to every problem, be it the overall concept or everyday moves that didnt work out. This indicates he was in the lowest 20% of billionaires rated. [2], Due to the remoteness of the resort, Lajitas is served by the Lajitas International Airport, a private airport with a 6,503ft (1,982m) concrete runway. For the American football player, see, "Executive Profile - Energy Transfer Partners - Kelcy L. Warren", "List of Public Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek", "Inside Kelcy Warren's Dallas Mansion - WSJ", "College of Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington", "Kelcy Warren emerges as one of Dallas' bold new philanthropists", "These Billionaires Received Taxpayer-Funded Stimulus Checks During the Pandemic", "The New Forbes Philanthropy Score: How We Ranked Each Forbes 400 Billionaire Based On Their Giving", "John Fogerty, Lyle Lovett, Bruce Hornsby, Jimmy LaFave put on a killer show on Kelcy Warren's ranch in the Texas Hill Country", "Why Kelcy Warren Named a Park For His Son", "Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race", "Dakota Access pipeline company and Donald Trump have close financial ties", "The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up", "Stealth billionaire lays claim to Woodall Rodgers park naming rights", "Lajitas Resort: Why you better go now - El Paso Inc.: Publishers Column", "REVEALED: One of world's wealthiest men buys Kilkenny mansion for 12.6m - Kilkenny Now - Your City. View more hotels in Lajitas Now the owner has put a huge statue of Robert E Lee right on the golf course. He says Black Jack's Crossing at Lajitas Golf Resort. She was all smiles when I met her, one more witness to the greatness of Lajitas. Restaurant Manager; Facilities. They want to hike, raft, and go get a beer on the porch in Terlingua. The population remained at 50 in 1990 and grew to 75 from 2000 to 2010. Folks lolled in the shade, shot pool on a felt-free pool table on the porch, rolled dice in the corner, and fed quarters into a jukebox that Ivey stocked with Vicente Fernndez 45s that he bought on regular trips to Jurez. 1,059 reviews. month to Mr. Warren, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based On the one hand, hes wealthy and owns his own plane. He was also involved in a dispute with the IRS over $140 million in tax shelters. [12] Before that, Lajitas had a school with 50 students in 1912. He has one son, Klyde Warren. The vision on the porch was of rooms priced at $150 a night and an RV park that is open to snowbirds, that will tolerate the occasional rattletrap trailer. In 2010, he bought the 3,500-acre BootJack Ranch near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, for $46.5 million. Its just spectacular.. He also hosted monthly dances and impromptu barbecues, when conjunto bands, crossing back into Mexico after performing stateside quinceaeras, would stop in and play for free beer. Pizzeria Attendant / Barista; F&B Management. information click here [5], In 2020, Forbes gave Warren its lowest score for philanthropy, a "1." reprints, email [emailprotected], call 800-374-7985 or And a federal judge approved the sale of Lajitas earlier this Still, when the sun sets each night, when the dry desert air turns gold and the clouds go from white to purple to orange to gone and a desert rat can put himself to sleep by counting stars, that hard life is worth it. [11], In 2022, he ranked No. [18], Warren donated $6 million to Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign. From 1996 to 2000, he sat on the board of directors of Crosstex Energy. #1 of 1 resort in Lajitas. And hell, thats the appeal!, Linda Walker, who has run the Lajitas Stables for more than twenty years, guiding horseback tours near the park and into Mexico, is not rich. Voted #4 Course You Can Play in Texas Golfweek Magazine. McGuirk sold his landholdings around Lajitas to Thomas V. Skaggs, who continued farming. A private buyer shipped it to a Lajitas golf course owned by oil and gas billionaire Kelcy Warren almost exactly two years since the Confederate General was pulled from its perch in what was then Lee Park. [2][3] He serves on the advisory board of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington. The ultimate fate of Lajitas wont be decided by any new owner. Owner is the CEO of Energy Transfer. There were weeks of discussion leading up to the 13-1 Council vote on September 5, 2017, ending with it being taken down and stored. But it wasnt. But there was no place for a Mexican jukebox in the new Lajitas. See pricing and listing details of Lajitas real estate for sale. The high bid at days end was $13.5 million, but the bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, hadnt offered enough money to pay all the creditors, and no deal was reached. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? She said the exclusivity of the resort was like Was he actually planning on repopulating Big Bend with the superrich dust-averse? McGuirk, who also helped manage the mining company in Terlingua and funded the construction of a church. The Lajitas area was then bought by Rex Ivey, Jr., who brought electricity to the community in 1949 and sold part of it to Walter M. Mischer, a Houston entrepreneur and owner of Mischer Corporation. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. slashed prices on the hotel rooms and began charging $29 a night at the The elevation of the course is 3500 feet. But there was insight to be gleaned in the law firms lobby. to the community and about music. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. Some links in this post may be affiliate links. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. [5] [24] He also owns an 8,000-acre ranch near Cherokee, Texas, [5] the 20,000-acre Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa in Lajitas, Texas, [25] and a private island near Roatn, Honduras. EL PASO (AP) - A West Texas resort billed by its owner as an exclusive desert getaway for the rich and famous filed for federal . When I asked a local sitting at the bar what he remembered of that story, she happened to be on the other side of me and interrupted, That was me! Shes still angry about it, and she ticked off the details as though it had happened the night before. .he sounds as if hes remembering the greatest day of his life. The resort is currently owned by a group of investors led by Bob McNair. Facilities Maintenance Technician; HVAC I Technician/Electrician He started his career working for the Lone Star Gas Company. Business is apparently booming at its new home, a course that has been perennially named among the top five or so in the state. It brings a satisfaction, not of beating the desert but of surviving it. He also donated $103,000 to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. The crossing was described as a smooth, rock bottom, and was best between Del Rio and El Paso. Youre not prepared for what you get.. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. In 1916 the interruption of commerce by civil unrest in Mexico, and isolated bandit raids into the US brought Gen. John J. Pershings troops to Lajitas, where they established a small cavalry post to monitor this critical river crossing. The runway airport has full 100LL and Jet A fuel, complimentary tiedowns down services and offers transportation to the resort. Holmes did not return a call about the donation. Big Bend is home to a few remarkable communities: Marathon, Study Butte, Terlingua Ghost Town, Lajitas, and Big Bend National Park. And he did sell plenty of beer, the most of any business in Brewster County, he estimates. 750 North St.Paul St. The settlement is named after the Boquillas flagstone found in the area. You cannot mess with that country. The region was sparsely inhabited for thousands of years by semi nomadic peoples related to the Patarabueyes and Jumanos tribes before the Spanish arrived. Thats a huge mistake. The Big Bend area is in Central Standard Time. Just beyond the far end of the boardwalk, a long, columned breezeway divided the dark, leather-bound Thirsty Goat Saloon and the glass-walled Candelilla Caf overlooking the golf course. [5] Dennis smiled and said something that hinted roughly at the wonders of clean canvases, bottomless toolboxes, and endless lumber supplies, and then excused himself to go to the restroom. Lajitas Golf Resort is an unexpected and fascinating oasis in the middle of the vast desert that makes up much of Big Bend Countryand today, Lajitas Golf Resort is nearly simultaneous with the town of Lajitas, TX. Lajitas is on the western edge of Big Bend National Park in southwestern Brewster County. The result is a resort that is simultaneously swanky with somewhat exclusive vibeshelped along by the fact that there is literally nothing else aroundthat is also far more affordable than you might think. It can be quite a jolt. What Im Watching: Dallas Mavericks Basketball. He restored the community in 1976 with his corporation's subsidiary, Arrow Development Company. No spam, ever. Mr. Warren, a Levis-jeans-and-cowboy-boot-wearing Texan from [2][3][4] He also serves as member of the management council of ETP Enogex Partners LLC, co-CEO of ETC OLP, co-CEO and co-chairman of La Grange Energy and of US Propane LLC. In 2000, the town and surrounding 25,000 acres was sold at auction to Austin entrepreneur/developer Steve Smith, who completely remodeled the town, attempting to establish an exclusive high end resort for the jet set. He has To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the By the early 80s, Lajitas on the Rio Grande had a 9 hole golf course, two lodging units, several condos, and was a local center of economic activity in Brewster County. Front Desk: (432) 424-5000 Suite 2100 "I still think it could be something special," the 52-year-old Later, after as the horse became integrated into the Apache and Comanche culture, these nomadic tribes frequented the area, causing the Spanich to set up a series of Presidios and military colonies, one of which, San Carlos, lies 18 miles south of Lajitas. John Poindexter, the owner of Big Bends Cibolo Creek Ranch resort, was among the last to arrive and the last to leave. [13], In 2007, he co-founded an independent record label, Music Road Records, with Jimmy LaFave and Fred Remmert. Our resort in West Texas is set among . Lajitas General Store and Deli Thirsty Goat Saloon Pizza Menu Thirsty Goat Menu To make dinner reservations in The Candelilla restaurant, call 432-424-5032 Candelilla Cafe Offering an Interesting Twist on Traditional Tex Mex Cuisine Candelilla Caf Hours of Operation 7 am - 10 pm Daily ocotillo plants. Theres a light in peoples eyes in far West Texas, a joy that comes with living exactly where and how a person wants. McNairs group has continued to invest in the resort adding a new clubhouse and expanding the spa.
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