Jul. 15—A sign posted Monday on the front door of La Casa Sena in downtown Santa Fe stated the restaurant was closed for lunch "until further notice."
A sign on the restaurant's wine shop next door said it would not be selling any alcohol until further notice.
Liquor licenses for La Casa Sena and other popular eateries owned by businessman Gerald Peters' Santa Fe Dining expired last month. The liquor license lapses, La Casa Sena's limited hours — only for dinner — and the wine shop's closure come as Peters faces at least three lawsuits filed by lenders and has placed some of his real estate on the market.
The well-known art dealer and real estate mogul, who remained silent in recent weeks as civil complaints and restaurant struggles generated a buzz, reflected Monday on his legacy in the city and his decision to scale back on his holdings.
Peters acknowledged in an email his decision to sell "a modest number" of properties, some his family has owned for more than 40 years.
"It never hurts to have new energy," he wrote. "And I've accomplished what I wanted, which was taking the early versions of bigger box space, that employed very few people, and breaking them into smaller spaces that sometimes multiplied the employment opportunities by 10 to 20 times."
His Santa Fe Arcade, a shopping mall-style property near the southwest corner of the Plaza on San Francisco Street that opened in 2004, was a novel idea that offered lower-cost retail space for small merchants in a high-profile location. One civil complaint filed in June seeks to foreclose on the Arcade, alleging Peters and his wife, Kathleen Peters, owe $87,000 on a decade-old $13 million loan tied to the property.
Another June lawsuit accuses the couple of defaulting on a $2.8 million loan from regional bank WestStar.
The most recent civil complaint against the couple, filed July 10, alleges they defaulted on two loans from Albuquerque-based Southwestern Capital Bank.
Gerald Peters wrote in his email jobs were "scarce" when he began buying real estate in Santa Fe, and he believes he created employment opportunities by "reconfiguring the retail spaces."
"I'm satisfied that I've more than accomplished that," he wrote. "So, over the next ten years, I will sell some of the real estate."
He has "always tried to create stable employment for lots of people" in the community, he wrote, calling himself Santa Fe's largest private employer, which "tends to bring a myriad of hassles."
Peters did not elaborate on his or his companies' financial health.
However, he wrote the two loans from Southwestern Capital Bank were in the process of "being moved."
"As of this morning, I was given a commitment to move them," he wrote. "The money is due to the banks, and they will be paid."
The bank had issued one loan in 2019 for more than $8 million and another in 2022 for $3 million, according to the complaint. The loans, issued to Peters' Pan Art Inc. and Bandelier LLC, had a total balance of more than $2 million, the complaint states.
According to the lawsuit, the loans were backed by collateral that includes a long list of artworks as well as Peters' life insurance policy. The list names artworks by Pablo Picasso, Grant Wood and Andrew Wyeth, and several pieces made by Tiffany Studios.
In 2022, the bank sold part of Peters' collateral: a 1922 Georgia O'Keeffe painting titled Green Leaves, according to the complaint; the proceeds were applied to one of the loans. The lawsuit seeks to sell another O'Keeffe painting from Peters' collection titled Abstraction.
In mid-June, Santa Fe Properties listed for sale several downtown properties tied to Peters.
A property on East Palace Street that houses year-round Christmas store The Shop was listed for more than $4 million. The property is owned by Peters and his wife, according to an online database provided by the Santa Fe County Assessor's Office. Another on Paseo de Peralta that houses an office for property rental company Casas de Santa Fe was listed for $1.6 million. A post office box linked to the property's holding company is associated with many of Peters' companies.
Two properties on Johnson Street and Chapelle Street, linked to the same post office box, were listed for nearly $2 million each. They house the restaurant TerraCotta Wine Bistro and some residential units.
The building housing Maria's New Mexican Kitchen on Cordova Road — one of Santa Fe Dining's restaurants — appeared in several listings for a couple of days last month before Santa Fe Properties President and Qualifying Broker Matt Desmond announced it wasn't for sale; it was mistakenly posted due to a "clerical error," he said.
Maria's suffered a blow in April, when a Santa Fe jury awarded a woman $31 million following a trial over her lawsuit alleging she suffered a spinal cord injury after stepping into a hole in the restaurant's parking lot.
Peters called the verdict "excessive in the extreme" and "most unfortunate." It could have "a very negative impact on insurance rates for small businesses statewide," he wrote in his email.
Santa Fe Dining executives did not respond Monday to calls seeking comment.
Peters noted he is a shareholder of the restaurant group and "not an officer."
The company's restaurants have experienced "some management challenges," he wrote, "which we are working to address."
