West Des Moines businessman Gary Kirke has sold the Coach’s Corner restaurant to a group of investors that includes Robert Myers, a principal in the Regency Homes building and land development company that collapsed this spring.

Myers, developer Brad Stanbrough and Anthony Rose applied for a liquor license Monday for the Sky Box Lounge, 1261 Eighth St., West Des Moines.

That building has been occupied since 1999 by two Kirke-owned restaurants: Fratello’s, an Italian restaurant that he converted to a sports-themed establishment in 2007 and renamed to Coach’s Corner.

Kirke and the buyers would not disclose a sales price for the business.

Anthony Rose said the Sky Box Lounge will continue the sports-lounge theme.

“We think it will be just like going to a skybox at major sporting events,” Rose said, adding that the restaurant will be geared toward business people.

“We’re very excited,” he said.

Kirke said through a spokesperson that after nine years “it was time to pass the torch” on the restaurant.

“I wish them well,” he said.

According to the liquor license application, Myers, Stanbrough and Rose are equal partners. Myers is listed as president of Skybox Lounge LLC. Stanbrough is listed as the vice president and Rose is listed as the managing partner. Rose is listed as the registered agent on an Iowa secretary of state record filed Aug. 6.

Myers is the president of Executive Real Estate Services, which has functioned as the property management and commercial real estate arm of Regency businesses. Stanbrough is the president of Stanbrough Homes and Commercial Builders Inc.

Banks seize more Regency properties

On the same day the partners applied for the liquor permit, West Bank filed for nonjudicial foreclosure on 53 properties in West Des Moines as the result of mortgages that Regency-related companies and their principals were in default.

Under the foreclosures, borrowers relinquish the deed to properties used to secure loans. Lenders, in turn, agree not to take legal action seeking to collect personal and corporate guarantees used as additional security on the loans.

Nonjudicial foreclosures frequently result in property being sold at less than its market value by lenders who do not want to linger in real estate markets.

In recent weeks, Bankers Trust Co. and Two Rivers Bank & Trust have filed similar foreclosure actions against properties in West Des Moines, Pleasant Hill and Johnston.

The Bankers Trust foreclosures, in which the properties were assigned to Family Homes Construction LLC and Family Homes Construction II LLC, were for parcels in the Williams Pointe development in Waukee and the Michael’s Landing development in West Des Moines, with outstanding mortgages of nearly $17 million.

Two Rivers claimed in its foreclosure actions on properties in Pleasant Hill and Johnston that Regency principals Robert Myers, his brother, James, Richard Moffitt and John Gamble, as well as their development companies, were in default for $6.9 million on notes that initially totaled $9.5 million.