A well-researched story this week in the Tulsa Business Journal tells about the sad state of affairs of the closed Frankoma Pottery business in nearby Sapulpa, Okla., off old Route 66.
Closed March 19 last year, the plant’s telephone numbers are out of service, and the home page for its website, www.frankoma.com, simply reads, “This site is temporarily on hiatus.”
A sign on the front door of the plant at 9549 Frankoma Road says, “Frankoma has temporarily closed the showroom and the factory. We will announce our reopening at a later date.”
With no trial dates on the schedule, the future of the 72-year-old plant is uncertain and hangs on the results of the foreclosure suit filed by Oklahoma City-based BancFirst on Dec. 21, 2009, against majority owner Joseph Ragosta and his company, American Made Pottery LLC.
The business, which opened in 1933 and moved to Sapulpa on Route 66 in 1938, has closed at least three times since 2004.
According to the story, an unnamed source says a dispute over who is the primary secured lender is holding up a foreclosure sale. This sounds suspiciously like the scenario that’s affecting thousands of foreclosures and home mortgages across the country — nobody seems to know who holds the title in the blizzard of bank mergers and credit-default swaps in recent years.