Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi won’t be auctioned, but it is for sale

Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi will not be auctioned off to the highest bidder, but it will go on the market soon.

But don’t worry — the water park will open for the 2018 summer season.

A foreclosure auction that was scheduled for Feb. 5 has been cancelled, according to Harold Bordwin, principal and managing director for Keen-Summit Capital Partners, LLC.

Keen-Summit was hired by the bankruptcy court to run the sale process, Bordwin said.

Last year, Dawn Ragan was appointed as Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee. She negotiated with International Bank of Commerce to let them sell the property rather than foreclose, Bordwin said.

“We are very shortly going to start with marketing and picking up the phone and calling other operators to try to solicit offers,” he said. “We’re going to try to make the process go quickly.”

 There will be no asking price put on the water park, he said.

“The season will go forward as planned; the hotel and golf course are open and operating now,” he added.

Upper Padre Partners, LP, the developers of the project on North Padre Island, failed to make payments of $16 million on a 2015 loan from International Bank of Commerce, according to Nueces County court documents.

In December, the company was asked to pay but failed to do so, court records show. The Austin-based Axys Capital Credit Fund, LLC, was brought in as a substitute trustee and also demanded payment.

Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts, headquartered in New Braunfels, operates five parks in Texas and Kansas, but only its Corpus Christi property is affected by foreclosure issues, according to Winter Prosapio, a Schlitterbahn spokeswoman.