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As the bankruptcy filing of its principal player indicates, Regency was homes and so much more.

James Myers, son of the company’s late co-founder, filed last week to liquidate his assets after business debts consumed his personal and entrepreneurial holdings. He claimed assets of nearly $1.1 million and debts of nearly $184 million.

The bankruptcy filing shows just how far-flung the Regency brand and the Myers family’s holdings had become.

The businesses include the signature names – Regency Homes, Regency Land Development, Regency Commercial Services – as well as companies that flew largely under the radar.

Those included rock quarries, mortgage companies, builders of manufactured homes, a company to entertain clients of the home-building operation and check-cashing operations.

Many were businesses or investments launched by the late Michael Myers, described by many as practically a force of nature who could ride deals to success through strength of will.

He launched Regency Homes with Richard Moffitt. He was the idea guy, and Moffitt was the on-site manager. Myers also ventured off into commercial real estate, investing with experts in retail development, for example.

Within a year of his death in 2006, the Regency empire was crumbling and his sons, James and Robert, along with Moffitt and financial officer John Gamble, scrambled to keep the pieces together.

Donald Neiman, a Des Moines attorney and bankruptcy expert who also serves as a trustee in bankruptcy cases, tried to help in the workout.

“I must not be a very creative person, because I just looked at everything and said, ‘Wow,'” Neiman said.

The company had become too complex to salvage through a bankruptcy reorganization, he said, noting that all the pieces – James Myers listed interests in nearly 500 separate business entities – seemed to touch one another. There was not a clear-cut entity to save.

“The banks had them tied around their fingers,” Neiman said.

Myers’ bankruptcy filing lists more than $175 million in unsecured loans from banks, insurance companies and family-controlled investment businesses. Myers had a $4 million personal loan and listed total debts of $17 million to one of those entities.

Neiman said the Myerses, Moffitt and Gamble have worked to reduce the debt that led to the collapse of Regency in April 2008.

According to the filing, Myers plans to keep his Waukee home, which is the target of court judgments totaling $8.3 million. The home is valued for tax purposes at $377,020.

Also, the filing indicates that Myers plans to turn all but $1,000 of $300,000 in savings over to the bankruptcy estate for the payment of bills.

Des Moines attorney Steve Wandro, who filed the bankruptcy petition, said James and Robert Myers have spent the last 18 months liquidating collateral to pay down debt.

Robert Myers does not intend to file for bankruptcy, Wandro said. Moffitt and Gamble “probably will follow” James Myers into bankruptcy court, Neiman said.