Karcher Enterprises Closes Escrow on Two of Founder’s Properties

Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc. closed escrow Thursday on the purchase of two of its financially troubled founder’s Orange County restaurant properties.

Carl N. Karcher sold the land under the Carl’s Jr. fast-food facilities in Anaheim and Garden Grove to the company to raise much-needed cash. The company had been leasing the two sites from him.

Karcher, who was fired as chairman of the company in October, has lost millions of dollars in real estate investments in recent years.

He grossed about $850,000 from the sale of the two properties but made only a “very small” profit after repaying debt on them, a spokesman said. The company would not comment on the sale price.

A third Carl’s Jr. property owned by the founder of the hamburger chain also is being sold back to the company, but that transaction is in limbo while environmental concerns are being resolved. The Garden Grove property was once used for a gas station.