A buyer for Skagit?

Chris Beytes

It looks like troubled Skagit Gardens might have a new owner, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

The piece said an investment firm has offered $8.6 million for the greenhouse and nursery operation, located in Mount Vernon, Washington. It was the high bid at a June 29 auction. There were several lower offers, including from the nursery’s bank creditors.

The high bidder is an outfit called Skagit Horticulture LLC, an affiliate of Columbia Pacific Management, a venture capital firm. Mr. Stanley Baty, vice president of Columbia Pacific Management and a founder of Columbia Pacific Advisors, sits on the board of Northwest Horticulture, which indicates the link.

The bid is enough to pay $7.5 million to two banks, paying off 94% of the nursery’s loan debt, plus $100,000 for the unsecured creditors.

The deal still has to be approved by the bankruptcy judge.

You may recall that Skagit is owned by an affiliate of Aequitas Management, which ran into serious SEC trouble earlier this year.

Interestingly, an earlier WSJ report indicated that an offer of $6.2 million had come from “an Ohio gardening company.” Could that have been Scotts Miracle-Gro, who recently partnered with Bonnie Plants? GT