Bio-Diesel Facility Auctioned Off to Original Owners

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A foreclosed bio-diesel production facility was on the auction block on the stairs of the courthouse and turns out the new owners are the old owners.

The history of American business is filled with stories of instant successes followed by just as instant failures.

Four years ago the sky seemed to be the limit for Memphis Bio-fuel's chances of being a leader in the alternative energy field. Now the company is fighting to rebound from setbacks by paying for an expensive second chance.

The closed Memphis Bio-fuels Company on a dead end street in Orange Mound hasn't exactly been a hub of activity the last three months. But, plant manager, Roger Shea is busy, but not too busy to forget to be thankful.

"This is basically our second go at this. We're out now trying to get everything back together," said Shea.

Meanwhile, across town on the blisteringly hot steps of the Shelby County Courthouse, Bio-fuels executive, Brandon Sheley, was doing his part to keep the company's dreams alive too by enduring the heat and the ignominy of having to spend half a million dollars at a foreclosure sale on the 17 acre property to gain a shot at a second chance for success.

"You had the whole crash in the economy and there's been, I guess you could say, some bad government policy in the way bio-diesel is handled," said Sheley.

Thursday's foreclosure proceedings were indeed a far cry from the jubilation and high hopes the opening of the plant trumpeted less than four years ago. A grand opening tour given to Fox 13 News then showcased storage bins filled with tons of cottonseed expected to produce as much as 2 ½ million gallons of bio-diesel fuel. The goal was to produce the fourth largest bio-diesel output in the country.

"We think it's going to be big for the United States. It's a great boost for the economy and we want to be right there in the infancy of bio-diesel," said Shea.

But, that expected growth of the industry remained in the puberty stage and coupled with increasing production costs finally began to put a stranglehold on the company's initial $24 million investment that once employed 50 people.

With plans to add a soy-bean crushing facility, the plant hopes to reopen sometime between October to December. Plenty of time to make a second chance, the best chance for an industry that still has a lot of "growing up" to do.