by Teresa Eubanks, Journal Editor
They had exhausted all their options.
Unable to make the final payment on the loan on their restaurant, the Barragans – Maria, her husband, Guadalupe and their daughter, Liza – realized last Wednesday that they were going to have to close the doors to Main Street Station Restaurant in Blountstown.
“We started negotiating on April 2 but couldn’t come to terms with the bank,” Maria said. “I couldn’t get it refinanced.”
She went to other banks but had no luck. When word got out they might have to close, a few offers for help came in but none panned out.
They finally accepted that, “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. We were OK with it,” she said.
They had already started telling customers they were closing. Maria let two employees go; then, as two others were getting ready to leave, she helped them find jobs with other restaurants. Last Wednesday, “we were slower than normal,” she said. “We were telling customers that it was going to be our last day.”
Just seven hours before Maria Barragan and her family would be forced to shut down Main Street Station Restaurant for good, she got a phone call from Liberty County resident Tim Revell.
“He said he had just heard what was happening to us and wanted to help,” according to Maria. She said she thought someone was joking with her but when she told her husband about the call, he said, “Let’s talk to him.”
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Maria and her husband came to Blountstown nearly eight years ago when her sister and brother-in-law convinced them to leave Central Florida and join them in opening a restaurant.
She took early retirement from Disney World, where she worked 13 years, starting in the hotels and working her way up to food service supervisor.
Her brother-in-law had just retired from his job in the courthouse in Orlando. They put their retirement money together and borrowed some more to buy and remodel the building by the M&B Railroad engine, creating a family-owned and operated restaurant.
But just four months after opening, Maria’s sister and brother-in-law decided the restaurant business wasn’t for them. They returned to Central Florida, leaving Maria and her husband with a huge bank loan to repay when their partners declared bankruptcy. “I had to buy his equity out to pay bankruptcy court,” Maria said.
They had challenges making ends meet. A few years ago, one loyal customer loaned the Barragans $15,000, which they repaid. They struggled to keep up their bank payments and just a few months ago, they were close to finishing out the loan with their 60th, and final, payment.
Then they found out it was a $188,000 balloon payment.
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Revell met with the Barragans last Wednesday, Sept. 23. After sizing up the situation – and the family – he told them, “Don’t close. We’re going for it.”
At 11 a.m. that day, the bank put the property up for auction on the steps of the Calhoun County Courthouse.
Three prospective buyers stood by to hear the asking price while five employees from the restaurant looked on, waiting to see if they still had jobs.
The cost was more than any of the bidders had anticipated. Revell made a lower offer that was not accepted.
The auction ended with no sale.
Revell left the courthouse, but had second thoughts; he hoped the bank would, too. He called a bank official in Crawfordville he had worked with in the past and talked with her about how much it would cost Centennial Bank to go through the eviction and liquidation process. “I told Chris Kelly it was my understanding that something like 40 businesses in the area had closed,” Revell said, making the point of how important those jobs were to the community as he continued to suggest options.
On Thursday morning, Revell told Kelly, “You do what you have to do. I’m all in with what I offered you…but as of 5 p.m., you can have it.”
He got a call back around 3:30 p.m. that day and reached an agreement with the bank. He declined to give the final amount, but said the bank allowed some of the costs they had originally factored in to be deducted. Once they had an agreement, he called Maria.
She was waiting at the restaurant, deciding whether she needed to be packing up before locking the doors or if she should place their weekly food order – which was supposed to be in by 3 p.m. – on the chance they might remain open.
When the phone rang, she picked it up and heard Revell say, “They accepted the offer, Maria. We’re good to go.”
She started crying with relief.
“I thought my heart was going to jump out of my body,” Maria said. “I was in tears and thanking God. Faith is the last thing I’m going to lose…I never lost my faith and my prayers were answered.”
Their food vendor gave them an extra hour to get their order in so they could keep going without missing a beat.
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Tim Revell, who retired a few years ago after owning and operating Champion Chevrolet in Tallahassee, which he sold to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick in 2012, keeps a hand in the business world buying and selling real estate.
He credits Chris Kelly with making it possible for the restaurant to remain open. “I think her interest was in making sure the deal got done and keeping some jobs for Calhoun County. She has a compassion for this area and its businesses,” he said, added, “Centennial did the right thing.”
Revell had only been to the Barragans’ restaurant five or six times but it made an impression on him. “The food is good, the people are nice and it’s super clean,” he said. After meeting the family last week, he sat down and ordered a double cheeseburger. When he looked around, he said he realized, “I can see this working out.”
He said they deserve the chance to save what they’ve built here and said the family was “as hard working as anybody I’ve ever seen.”
They got in a bad situation when their partners left without making it clear they would one day face a huge balloon note on the business, he said.
He bought the building and the equipment and they will continue to operate the business. “As of now, they’re going to be paying rent until we come to an agreement where they can afford to purchase it,” he said.
And he is looking at other ways to help keep the restaurant in business, with plans for an energy audit of the building to see if they can find a way to reduce their utility costs.
“I’m not in the restaurant business,” he said. “The only thing I’m trying to do is help them and I believe they’re going to make it.”
• • • • •
“A lot of folks in the community would have been sad to see them go,” said Blountstown Mayor Tony Shoemake. “We hate to see any business leave, especially one that’s been here as long as they have.” He said the ten or more jobs the restaurant provides “makes a big difference in a small town.”
He said the centrally located spot had become a hub of the community, where many families and groups gather for meals and birthday celebrations.
Now, instead of closed signs on the front door, the counters in the restaurant hold congratulatory flowers and cards. And their benefactor, who was scheduled to leave town shortly after wrapping up the deal with the bank, is getting thank you calls from customers grateful for his help making it possible for a small family business to survive.
“May through September has been the roughest time of my life,” Maria said. “I think I’ve aged a lot,” but she is grateful they have gotten a second chance. “This community really pulled together for us, we’ve had so many calls of congratulations,” she said, adding, “Mr. Tim did everything for us.”