Posted on: 31/12/2009 

Human Bean drive-through coffee shops opened briefly today, five days after being closed amid financial difficul-ties, only to be seized hours later by the Colorado Depart-ment of Revenue for nonpayment of $45,134.06 in sales and employment taxes.

The Human Bean also owes Larimer County $2,558 in 2008 personal property taxes, according to county records.

Fort Collins officials declined to release information whether Human Bean owed the city any back tax revenue.

Typically, when the state seizes a business for back tax payments, it will keep the business closed until the taxes are paid.

If they’re not paid within a certain amount of time, the state will sell the business’ inventory to recoup its money.

A Notice of Public Sale is posted on Human Bean’s two Fort Collins stores, but no date is listed for such a sale.

Fort Collins’ two Human Bean coffee drive-throughs were dark by midday. Large signs with SEIZED stamped in red letters hung in the window just in back of cheer-ful snowflakes with employees names on them.

The stores at 821 N. College Ave. and 1822 S. College Ave., were closed abruptly on Christmas Day when fran-chise owner Sam Wray ran out of money.

Wray filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year ago but has been working with Morning Fresh Dairy owner Rob Graves of Bellvue to get a new flow of cash and possibly new franchise owner, into the business.

Wednesday morning, Graves told the Coloradoan “The Human Bean concept and franchise is good and strong. Everything there is great, that’s why I’m interested in it.”

Graves said Wray’s problems stemmed from the failure of Greeley’s New Frontier Bank, which was closed by federal regulators in April
.
Prior to that, the Colorado franchise was in an expansion mode. When NFB shutdown, it took with it the franchise’s line of credit.

“If it were not for New Frontier Bank, there would be no issue now,” he said. “It’s hard for a business to operate without a line of credit.”

Graves and Wray have not returned phone calls seeking comment on the state seizure or the future of the Colorado franchise.

Graves has been working on plans to either buy or partner with Wray to get the coffee shops on solid footing.

The plan has been delayed by the bankruptcy and holidays, he said.
What the plan will look like after it goes through bankruptcy court is unknown. It requires approval from both the bankruptcy judge and creditors, Graves said.

“Anything’s possible at this point,” he said. “I’m going into this with a really open mind. I like Sam a lot and The Human Bean concept and corporate is behind us. We just have to get some financing.”

Wednesday morning before the state stepped in, Krista Sack, manager of the Human Bean on North College Avenue, said customers were excited to find the coffee shop open again. Little did she know she would once again be out of a job within hours.

At midday, several cars pulled into the stores on both sides of town only to drive out again after seeing the signs.

In terms of long-term stability, Sack said the Colorado franchise was in the process of transferring to new owners and said: “so everything looks really good so far.”
Wray opened the first Hu-man Bean in Fort Collins in 2005 and added a South Col-lege Avenue store earlier this year.

The seven Colorado stores in Fort Collins, Loveland, LaSalle, Greeley and Evans, are all owned by Wray.

The Oregon-based chain has been open for 10 years. A dozen of its stores are corporate owned. The remaining 38 are owned by franchisees in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, California and Oregon.