From Houston Public Media:
A Grimes County judge has ordered the owners of the Texas Renaissance Festival to sell its property and assets after siding with a group of prospective buyers who sued after a $60 million deal fell through in 2023.
A court trial was held last week in the civil lawsuit, filed in August 2023. Judge Gary Chaney released a judgment late Wednesday ordering the festival to keep up its end of the original sale agreement from which the festival owners were accused of backing out.
In a Thursday statement to Houston Public Media, a Texas Renaissance Festival spokesperson said business will continue as usual and that a decision had not yet been made regarding a potential appeal.
“Our commitment remains unchanged: to deliver a safe, vibrant, and memorable experience for the hundreds of thousands of guests who visit each year,” the spokesperson said. “Festival operations are moving forward as planned for the 2025 season.”
The Texas Renaissance Festival, which celebrates the artistic and architectural movement that emerged in Europe after the Middle Ages, is an annual fall event that’s been held for more than 50 years in a small town about 55 miles northwest of Houston. It was the subject of a 2024 documentary series called “Ren Faire” that streamed on Max.
According to the original petition filed with the lawsuit, businesses RW Lands, Inc., Texas Stargate, Inc., and Royal Campground, Inc., sued the Texas Renaissance Festival for allegedly withdrawing from an agreement to buy the event property, an adjacent property and the festival’s assets for a total of $60 million. The lawsuit also named renaissance festival founder George Coulam and his other company, Stargate Manor Arboretum, LLC, as defendants in the case.
In his order, Chaney also awarded the plaintiffs more than $22 million in damages and $1 million in legal fees.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs were not immediately available for comment regarding the judge’s ruling.
The lawsuit claimed that Coulam and his companies entered a purchase and sale agreement with the plaintiffs on April 7, 2023, to sell the main festival property for $48 million and an adjacent property for $12 million.
The plaintiffs say they learned the festival owners would likely not close on the transaction on Aug. 7, 2023, the day before the sale was set to happen, according to the lawsuit.
“Indeed, the Aug. 8, 2023 closing date came and went without the defendants complying with their closing obligations,” the plaintiffs claimed in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs asserted a breach of contract, arguing that since they deposited an initial payment as required by the agreement, the festival owners were required to comply with their end of the deal.
