Default on loan payments led to closure of Pretoria Fields Brewery

ALBANY — When a social media post focused on downtown Albany’s Pretoria Fields Brewery surfaced recently, something was missing. Whether intentionally vague or written without explanation, the post said the popular brewery was “closing.”

It seems a few letters — f-o-r-e — were left out of that post. As in “foreclosing.”

Southwest Georgia Farm Credit, which loaned brewery principles Pretoria Fields LLC, Pretoria Holdings LLFC, Pretoria Operations LLC and Joe Harris “Tripp” Morgan III funds for the brewery startup, has declared all loans to be in default due to failure to pay the indebtedness secured by a deed to secure debt and has exercised its option to declare the remainder of said indebtedness immediately due and collectible.

The court action, filed by attorney David A. Kendrick of Bainbridge law firm Kendrick Law LLC, noted that Morgan and Pretoria Fields principles secured a promissory note on Nov. 4, 2016, in the principal sum of $2,708,585; another promissory note in the original principal amount of $526,000 signed on Oct. 31, 2015; a promissory note in the original principal amount of $576,000 executed on  Oct. 31, 2013; a promissory note executed on Dec. 28, 2015 in the principal sum of $618,275, and all additional loans and advances that might subsequently be made through a deed to secure debt.

The properties listed included “the south side of Pine Street, and extending south the same width, a distance of 210 feet, more or less, to a public alley; the portion of city lot No. 12, on Pine Street, on which is located a two-story brick building numbered 120-122 Pine Street described in a deed from 9-18-31, to Alliance Warehouse Co., recorded in Deed Book 58, Folio 575, Clerk’s Office, Superior Court, Dougherty County, constituting one single tract of land that is known as the Albany Warehouse Co. property and the store building on the South side of Pine Street.

Another tract of land, 11.75 acres described as Land Lot 190 of the Second Land District of Dougherty County, and secured by promissory note on Dec. 28, 2015, in the principal sum of $618,275 also has been defaulted by the borrower’s failure to pay the indebtedness secured by the Deed to Secure Debt and in accordance with the provisions of the note, Southwest Georgia Farm Credit has exercised its option to declare the remainder of said indebtedness immediately due and collectible.

The action taken by Kendrick on behalf of Southwest Georgia Farm Credit notes that the properties will be sold to the highest and best bidder for cash on the first Tuesday in December (Dec. 3) 2024.

The aforementioned social media post indicated the brewery would re-open on Wednesday of this week on property in southwest Albany off Flowing Well Road. That post was taken down and another posted saying the brewery would open at a later, as-yet-undetermined date.

A person at that site Thursday, who asked that his name not be used in this article, said owners were “getting the licenses they needed to re-open here.”

Attempts by The Albany Herald to reach principle owner Tripp Morgan for comment have not been successful.

The bombshell dropped by Southwest Georgia Farm Credit does not address funding loaned to Morgan and Pretoria Fields by the city of Albany through its rotating Job Creation Fund that utilized moneys collected by the city through reimbursements from the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, collected as a hedge against expected deregulation that never happened.

New Albany City Manager Terrell Jacobs said that he could not get deep into the details of the issue because it is a legal matter, but he said the city is doing everything it can to recoup funds loaned to Pretoria.

“What I can say is that the downtown location of Pretoria Fields has been shuttered,” Jacobs said during a telephone conversation Thursday. “We’re evaluating how we can best deal with the outstanding debt owed taxpayers by Pretoria Fields. But it appears that there may be lenders ahead of us who would collect their money first.

“We’re going to evaluate all of this moving forward, see if there are ways we can negotiate some kind of settlement in which everybody maybe gets something. There are several pieces to this dynamic: the land, the building, the equipment. We’ve just got to figure how we fit in unraveling this.”

As fate would have it, new city attorney Michael Custer served as Morgan’s attorney at Pretoria Fields and could not by law speak of the legal matter.

“It was a sh– show; you never knew from day to day what was going on,” the former employee said. “Look at what happened with the hand sanitizer deal during COVID. They managed to screw up a multimillion-dollar opportunity. And it wasn’t the employees; it was management.”

Jacobs said it will probably be next year before the city finds out whether it will recover any funds.

“I’ll be honest with you; this is going to take some time to unravel,” he said. “I hate that this is happening to this group — from all reports, this was a big plus downtown — but we are responsible for the welfare of our citizens.”

The city manager said city officials already have heard from individuals interested in the property.

“Yes, some of the people who have reached out are brewers,” he said. “That would make sense, with that equipment in place. But we’re going to do what we feel is the best interest of our citizens.”

Senior reporter Alan Mauldin contributed to this story.

Special PhotoFile Photo: Tara Fletcher

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