Ritter Ranch Builder Files for Bankruptcy
Ritter Ranch Co., the partnership that once aimed to build a massive residential development in Palmdale, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.
The bankruptcy filing came three months after the company’s lender, New York-based Bankers Trust Co., foreclosed on the 11,000-acre property upon which the giant Ritter Ranch development was to be built.
In documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills, Ritter Ranch listed liabilities of $8,513,106 against assets of $19,659.
Most of the debts listed are in increments of $50,000 or less. The creditors include engineering, printing, telephone and credit companies.?
A debt of $42,845 to the city of Palmdale is also listed. City Manager Robert Toone said he has “no idea” what that debt represents, but suggested there could be other outstanding debts to the city from the project, which oversaw the sale of high-risk bonds to pay for public improvements at Ritter Ranch.
Ritter partners Merv Adelson and Irwin Molasky, who had previously built the company Lorimar Telepictures, launched the 7,200-home Ritter Ranch development in the late 1980s. Shortly afterward, real estate values in Palmdale plummeted, and none of the houses were ever built.
