Land-use design company seeks bankruptcy liquidation

Just two years after moving into innovative office space designed to attract the most talented architects and engineers in northern Nevada, Jeff Codega Planning and Design filed for Chapter 7 liquidation June 5 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reno.

The company's bankruptcy petition lists assets of $1.56 million. Its liabilities include secured claims of $1.07 million and $1.15 million in unsecured claims. Total liabilities are $2.26 million.

Its largest creditor is Sun West Bank of Reno, which loaned nearly $1 million for the planning firm's property at 750 Sandhill Road in South Meadows. The second largest creditors listed in the company's bankruptcy filing are Jeffrey and Barbara Codega, who loaned the company $471,000.

Other creditors include the U.S. Treasury, owed $120,000 in withholding tax, and Van Wager Company, owed $110,000 for lease arrears. Bankruptcy filings also show the company also owes 16 former employees and shareholders more than $60,000 in unpaid wages.

Jeff Codega is listed as the company's largest shareholder at 81 percent. Michael Railey, executive director and vice president of operations, owns about 6 percent of the company.

Railey and another former employee, Derek Wilson, have moved on to form Rubicon Design Group, while former JCPD partner Kreg Mebust and senior landscape architect Rich Shock have formed a new landscape architectural design firm, Sage Green Design.

Codega on May 1 formed a new venture, Codega Concepts LLC. He is listed as the company's managing member in incorporation documents filed with the state.

Jeff Codega Planning and Design grossed $6.25 million in 2007 and $4.09 million in 2008, but revenues plummeted to just $396,000 so far this year, it says in its court filing.

Attorney Steven Harris of Reno represents the company.

When it moved into new quarters during the flush times of the middle years of this decade, the first floor of the company's 15,000-square-foot office was designed to replicate AT&T Park in San Francisco. The second floor was designed to look like a football field.

Two calls to the firm for comment last week were not returned.