Daufuskie resort might have a buyer

The Daufuskie Island Resort & Breathe Spa might soon have a new owner, according to a court document filed last week.

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the resort's parent company expects to present the court with a proposed sale of "substantially all" of the parent company's property "within a short time," the document stated.

Trustee Robert C. Onorato should have a contract for the court's review within 60 days if not sooner, said Tobin Spirer, trustee spokesman.

The leading bid is the latest of several that have arrived recently, Spirer said.

"The most recent offer has been the most attractive," Spirer said. "However, we are hopeful additional offers may still come in."

The potential buyer who made that offer will examine the resort during a due-diligence period that is under way, Spirer said.

A new owner could be in a position to help determine the future of Daufuskie, a mostly undeveloped 5,000-acre chunk of the Southeast coast accessible only by boat.

Once one of the island's largest employers, the resort includes two golf courses, tennis courts, several restaurants, the Melrose Inn and an equestrian center.

The Melrose Co. built the resort in the 1980s, and the resort has changed hands several times, most recently when Gayle and Bill Dixon of San Francisco bought it in 2002.

The Dixons' Daufuskie Island Properties, which owns the resort, filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to reorganize in January, listing $88.2 million in liabilities and $97.1 million in assets.

The notice of the resort's possible sale appeared in a judge's order granting Onorato an extension until Nov. 1 to file a liquidation plan. The extension was granted by Judge John E. Waites, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of South Carolina.