Cowboys Dancehall, up for foreclosure, files for bankruptcy

Country music lovers two-stepped and twirled to the songs of Jon Wolfe at Cowboys Dancehall, April 28, 2016. Country music lovers two-stepped and twirled to the songs of Jon Wolfe at Cowboys Dancehall, April 28, 2016. Photo: Kody Melton Photo: Kody Melton Image 1 of / 140 Caption Close Cowboys Dancehall, up for foreclosure, files for bankruptcy 1 / 140 Back to Gallery

Cowboys Dancehall, a popular country music venue routinely among the most lucrative local alcohol-selling establishments, has filed an emergency bankruptcy petition to stall a foreclosure sale scheduled for next week.

Cowboys Far West Ltd., the Arlington-based partnership that owns the dance hall, listed between $1 million and $10 million in estimated liabilities and $50 million to $100 million in estimated assets, according to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filed Friday in the Western District of Texas.

A lawyer for Cowboys was not immediately available for comment.

The San Antonio dance hall was scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction July 5 after defaulting on two property loans totaling $7.5 million made through two deeds of trust in 2007 and 2008, according to Bexar County records.

Cowboys, despite its troubles, consistently ranks among the county’s top venues for alcohol sales. It sold about $3.83 million worth of beer, wine and liquor in 2015, ranking 11th in sales out of about 980 bars, restaurants and concert halls licensed to sell alcohol in the area last year, according to data from the Texas Comptroller’s office.

But annual alcohol sales at the dance hall have steadily declined as countywide alcohol sales rose, state mixed-beverage receipt data shows. Sales at the nightclub fell from about $5 million in 2008 to $3.83 million in 2015, a decrease of almost 25 percent.

Bexar County drinkers, in the meantime, have been spending about 70 percent more on alcohol than they did a decade ago — buying $559.4 million in cocktails in 2015, up from $328.4 million in 2005.

Competing establishments have displaced Cowboys from its high-ranking sales spot. In 2005, the dance hall was the fourth-most popular place to grab a drink at in Bexar County, raking in $4.23 million in alcohol sales. TopGolf USA San Antonio, the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa and restaurant chains such as Chili’s, Twin Peaks and Buffalo Wild Wings have since chipped away at the venue’s dominance.

Cowboys Far West has also struggled to pay its property tax bills on time, drawing more than $75,000 in late fines in the past eight years, the Bexar County tax assessor-collector’s office reports. Cowboys’ property taxes have risen along with the value of its expansive 16.6-acre lot, which increased by almost 35 percent from 2004 to 2015, according to county property records. The Bexar County Appraisal District assessed the property at about $5.3 million this year.

State alcohol regulators fought the renewal of the nightclub’s liquor license earlier this year, arguing before a state administrative judge that Cowboys’ 30 violations since it opened in 2003 should disqualify the venue from keeping its license. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission dropped its protest in exchange for a hefty fine.

It’s unclear whether Cowboys will stay open throughout its bankruptcy proceedings, but the dance hall’s website lists concerts, boxing matches and other events scheduled through August.

Cowboys is scheduled to meet with creditors July 25 at the Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building in downtown San Antonio.

jfechter@express-news.net

Twitter: @JFreports