More than a year into chapter 11, the bankruptcy of DCA Outdoor, Inc. has moved into a staged liquidation and expanding estate litigation. The Kansas City–based nursery and landscape group — the nation's largest producer of balled-and-burlapped trees — has sold its operating businesses in tranches for at least $18.2 million, anchored by a $6 million sale to Powell Gardens and a $12.2 million cash sale to Blue Grass Farms. Alongside the sales, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors has filed two estate adversary proceedings against founder Tory Schwope, former lead counsel Lewis Rice, and former chief restructuring officer Focus Management Group, though the court denied without prejudice the stipulation that would have formally granted the committee derivative standing to pursue those claims.
DCA Outdoor and 20 affiliated debtors filed voluntary chapter 11 petitions on February 20, 2025 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri before Chief Judge Cynthia A. Norton, jointly administered under lead case number 25-50053. The first-day declaration describes a 21-entity group operating from Kansas City across six states, selling into more than 20 states and Canada, and employing more than 300 full-time and 200 seasonal workers. As of mid-2026 no chapter 11 plan or disclosure statement had been filed, and the debtors have said the eventual plan may be a liquidating plan rather than a reorganization.
DCA Outdoor, Inc. (21 jointly administered entities)
Court
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Missouri
Case Number
25-50053
Petition Date
February 20, 2025
Judge
Hon. Cynthia A. Norton
DIP Facility
$3 million from Frontier Farm Credit (SOFR + 5.5%), repaid and replaced in November 2025 by a larger Frontier facility (SOFR + 5.00%) after a proposed $8.05 million Summit Investment Management facility was withdrawn
Case Snapshot
Schwope Roll-Up and Midwest Growth Partners Backing
Tory Schwope began planting his nursery in 1997 while attending Kansas State University and purchased two farms in Atherton, Missouri in 2005. The operation grew to more than 500 acres across 10 farms. Schwope formed DCA Outdoor, Inc. in 2016 as a holding company and acquired Colonial Gardens, a Blue Springs, Missouri garden center founded in 1969, the same year.
Midwest Growth Partners, a Des Moines-based private equity firm, later invested in DCA Outdoor to accelerate platform expansion. With that backing, DCA assembled 12 brands — including Schwope Brothers Tree Farms, Colonial Gardens, Brehob Nurseries, KAT Wholesale Outdoor, and the Utopian Plants and Utopian Transport entities — with operations across Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, and Oregon. In 2019, DCA acquired Brehob Nursery, an Indiana wholesaler with roughly 170 employees and two Indianapolis-area facilities, expanding the platform's Midwest distribution footprint. In his first-day declaration, Schwope described DCA as a vertically integrated landscape supply company and the largest balled-and-burlapped tree producer in the United States, with Schwope owning 100% of DCA Outdoor and roughly 99% of the affiliated entities and his brother Cody Schwope holding the balance.
Revenue Decline and Frontier Forbearance Termination
Gross revenue for 2024 declined to approximately $63 million, with net losses widening to roughly $3.1 million. The first-day declaration reported about $127 million of inventory and approximately $46.5 million invested in property and equipment against that loss. Schwope attributed the deterioration to the loss of a large customer that allegedly failed to pay for spring shipments, leaving an approximately $3 million uncollectible receivable, plant disease at a major Oregon supplier that caused further revenue losses, and softer demand and pricing pressure across the landscape industry.
The immediate liquidity trigger was lender action. Frontier Farm Credit served as DCA Outdoor's primary secured lender through two affiliated entities reflecting the Farm Credit System structure: Frontier Farm Credit, FLCA provided term loans, and Frontier Farm Credit, PCA provided operating and working capital credit. On February 3, 2025 — about three weeks before the bankruptcy filing — Frontier terminated its forbearance arrangement, and the first-day declaration describes a February 12, 2025 acceleration notice that cut off line-of-credit availability shortly before the petition date.
DCA Outdoor's distress coincided with broader stress in agricultural lending. Net farm income declined from nearly $182 billion in 2022 to approximately $140.7 billion in 2024. Total farm debt rose roughly 7% in 2024, with operating loan volumes up more than 30% for the third consecutive quarter. Agricultural lenders surveyed by the American Bankers Association identified credit quality deterioration as their chief concern heading into 2025.
Frontier Facilities, Cash Collateral, and the DIP Fight
The first-day papers put Frontier Farm Credit at the center of the capital structure. The cash collateral motion stated the debtors owed about $96 million as of the petition date, consisting of approximately $56.12 million in revolving loans and $40.32 million in term loans, with Frontier holding senior secured positions on substantially all of the debtors' assets. The debtors said immediate access to cash collateral was necessary to harvest and ship products, meet payroll and farm-safety obligations, and avoid a value-destructive shutdown.
On March 11, 2025, the debtors filed a DIP financing motion seeking up to $3 million from Frontier — the same prepetition secured lender that had terminated forbearance weeks earlier — with up to $2.5 million available on an interim basis. The proposed facility carried interest at SOFR plus 5.5%, a 5% default-rate step-up, and a July 1, 2025 maturity, with borrowing tied to an approved 13-week budget. The proposed carve-out covered statutory fees, budgeted professional fees, and up to $25,000 for a chapter 7 trustee, while giving the creditors' committee only a capped budget to investigate lender claims and liens.
The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors objected that Frontier was using the DIP and cash-collateral orders to sweep in previously unencumbered assets — including avoidance actions and commercial tort claims — and to impose estate waivers after it had already fully funded the DIP. By the final order entered October 3, 2025, the court approved that facility and the use of cash collateral on a final basis, ratified the budget regime, and granted Frontier cash-pay interest, replacement liens, superpriority claims, fee reimbursement, and credit-bid rights, all senior only to a defined carve-out.
Trustee Motion and the Brent King CRO Transition
On August 25, 2025, Frontier Farm Credit and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors filed a joint motion to appoint a chapter 11 trustee, arguing the cases were in financial freefall, had produced no viable path out of chapter 11, and were marked by mismanagement, insider self-dealing, poor reporting controls, and noncooperation from Tory Schwope. The motion alleged that Schwope Brothers Tree Farms funded $473,210 in improvements to Schwope's personal residence, that management made rent payments to insiders outside court-approved budgets and failed to disclose those payments in the Statement of Financial Affairs, and that the debtors' acquisition-driven growth strategy had failed to generate positive cash flow. It proposed removing Schwope and installing Brent King because of his prior familiarity with the business.
Rather than appoint a trustee, the court resolved the dispute through a CRO structure. The court entered an order on September 12, 2025 addressing the joint motion, and the final CRO order entered September 18, 2025 retained Brent King as chief restructuring officer and chief executive officer effective September 11, 2025, with all the powers of a chapter 11 trustee and responsibility for operations, asset monetization, claims resolution, and plan development. The CRO change displaced an earlier restructuring officer: Focus Management Group USA, Inc. and Juanita Schwartzkopf had served as the debtors' chief restructuring officer from February 25, 2025 through September 30, 2025 before being removed. The court later expanded the scope of GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group's employment effective March 4, 2026 as the restructuring advisor driving the wind-down.
The governance change coincided with a renegotiated financing package. In September 2025, with the original Frontier facility already repaid in full, the debtors sought approval of a larger, $8.05 million debtor-in-possession facility from Summit Investment Management. Weeks after Brent King's retention as CRO, the debtors withdrew the Summit proposal and substituted Frontier as DIP lender for the enlarged facility instead, after Frontier, the CRO, and the committee renegotiated its budget and terms. The court approved that facility on a final basis by the final order entered November 14, 2025, which set interest at SOFR plus 5.00% (13.00% on default) and a 1.00% commitment fee. Original debtors' counsel Lewis Rice LLC was removed as counsel in November 2025, a transition that became a focal point of the later fee disputes and estate litigation.
Three-Tranche Sale to Powell Gardens and Blue Grass Farms
On December 1, 2025, the debtors filed a motion to sell substantially all assets, explaining that they had pivoted from attempted restructuring to a staged sale because of ongoing liquidity pressure, unsuccessful out-of-court alternatives, and the need to stem losses entering the seasonal downturn. The court entered the bidding procedures order on December 11, 2025, dividing the effort into three tranches: a first tranche of retail, distribution, and production operations other than certain Missouri core assets; a second tranche of Missouri-core and related production assets; and a third tranche of excess machinery, equipment, and personal property. King, as CRO, ran the marketing, bid evaluation, and auctions in consultation with Frontier and the committee.
The first-tranche successful bid notice named Powell Gardens, Inc. as purchaser for $6 million, covering assets of Colonial Farms, Colonial Gardens, Colonial Gardens Development, and KAT Wholesale Outdoor; the court approved that sale on February 17, 2026. For a portion of the second tranche, the debtors selected Blue Grass Farms, Inc. as purchaser for $12.2 million in cash for the assets of Brehob Nurseries, DCA Land Indiana, and Utopian Plants Indiana, and the court approved that portion on February 20, 2026.
The remaining dispositions moved into mid-2026. The court approved a third notice of intent to auction the excess machinery, equipment, and personal property on May 22, 2026. The debtors then extended the third-tranche deadlines, resetting the stalking-horse/bid deadline to July 3, 2026 and the auction to July 17, 2026, before filing a fourth notice of intent to auction on July 7, 2026 without a new auction date set. The estate has also sold residual real estate parcel-by-parcel; a May 21, 2026 motion sought to sell real property at 28200 East Rogers Road in Buckner, Missouri to Zachary and Kathryn Wharton for $306,000 in cash, free and clear under section 363(f), and the court approved that sale on June 22, 2026. The court on June 4, 2026 as the wind-down continued to shed burdensome contracts.
Estate Litigation: Valley Hill, Lewis Rice, and Focus Management
Valley Hill adversary and the Kentucky tree inventory. On February 5, 2026, the debtors opened an adversary proceeding against Valley Hill Tree Farm, LLC, docketed as Adversary No. 26-05001, over Kentucky real property and related tree inventory. The complaint valued the disputed inventory at approximately $8.7 million and alleged it was estate property because it had previously been scheduled as debtor inventory, because DCA Land Kentucky owned the underlying real estate, and because a purported lease used by Valley Hill was invalid. The requested relief included declaratory rulings on ownership, turnover of the property and inventory, injunctions against any sale of the trees, and damages tied to alleged stay violations.
To preserve value during the spring digging season, the debtors and Valley Hill entered a partial Rule 9019 compromise that the court approved on March 27, 2026. The compromise authorizes the debtors to harvest and sell inventory from roughly 360 acres in Washington County, Kentucky, with the estate retaining 60% of gross sale proceeds — subject to Frontier's liens as cash collateral — and the remaining 40% held in trust pending further agreement or court order. The compromise expressly is not a full settlement and does not resolve the adversary; all parties reserved their ownership, lease-validity, and stay-violation claims. Tory Schwope owns 100% of Valley Hill Tree Farm, and his personal interests in the dispute are administered by chapter 7 trustee Norman Rouse in Schwope's own bankruptcy estate.
Derivative-standing stipulation denied. In May 2026 the debtors and the committee entered a stipulation that would have granted the committee derivative standing to investigate, assert, and settle estate causes of action so the CRO could focus on the wind-down. The stipulation identified the targets as Tory Schwope and former professionals Lewis Rice and Focus Management Group, with any recovery remaining estate property. Focus Management Group and other parties objected, and after hearings on June 4 and July 7, 2026, the court denied the motion to approve the stipulation without prejudice, for reasons stated on the record at the July 7 hearing.
Lewis Rice and Focus Management adversaries. On May 6, 2026 the committee opened a second adversary proceeding, Adversary No. 26-05003, against Lewis Rice LLC and Larry E. Parres, the partner who served as the debtors' lead bankruptcy counsel. The seven-count complaint — pleading legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, breach of the duty of loyalty, aiding and abetting, unjust enrichment, and equitable disgorgement — alleges the firm prioritized Schwope's personal interests over the estates': fighting the trustee appointment to preserve Schwope's control, representing non-debtor affiliate Valley Hill without disclosure, and coaching an estate professional to recharacterize prepetition fees as post-petition work. The complaint alleges the firm spent 64.2% of its time on matters benefiting Schwope personally and less than 4% on strategies to maximize estate value, and it seeks disgorgement of all fees — the firm sought roughly $1,536,092.40 in total fees, of which about $863,817.13 had been awarded on an interim basis — plus compensatory and punitive damages.
On June 11, 2026 the committee filed a third adversary proceeding, Adversary No. 26-05004, against former CRO Focus Management Group and Tory Schwope. The six-count complaint alleges FMG failed to act as an independent fiduciary — deferring to Schwope's financial modeling rather than performing independent analysis, declining to use its "blocking power," and failing to test inventory inputs in a way that affected inventory valuation by tens of millions of dollars — and that it never ran liquidation analyses or valued the enterprise as a whole. The prayer for relief seeks compensatory damages, disgorgement of all FMG fees and expense reimbursements of roughly $1.6 million, and denial of FMG's final fee application in its entirety.
Contested Fees, Wind-Down Losses, and the Plan Path
The estates' professional fees have themselves become a central contested matter. Focus Management Group and Juanita Schwartzkopf sought $1,637,660 in fees plus $60,416.12 in expenses for their service as CRO; the U.S. Trustee asked the court to cut the request by 75% and disallow $79,814.80 in travel costs, arguing the fees were disproportionate to an estate that lost more than $5 million during FMG's tenure. The committee separately asked the court to deny the FMG application in its entirety, arguing the firm functioned as a "rubber stamp" for Schwope and never obtained a final retention order.
Lewis Rice's final fee application sought $1,497,771.45; the U.S. Trustee urged a significant reduction or full disallowance, citing the firm's concurrent representation of the debtors, Schwope, and Valley Hill Tree Farm, and its removal by the CRO in November 2025. Lewis Rice filed an omnibus response on June 2, 2026, standing behind all of its requested fees with no voluntary reduction, arguing the objections rest on "hindsight and innuendo," that it represented only the debtors and never Schwope individually, and that disgorgement is an "extreme measure" reserved for egregious conduct that did not occur. The debtors also moved for Rule 9019 approval of a $200,000 settlement resolving two Oregon agricultural-lease disputes, paying $115,000 to TD Farm Properties and $85,000 to Jesse Warner Properties so the estate can finish harvesting trees on the leased parcels; the court approved that compromise on June 30, 2026.
The wind-down continues to erode estate value. The April 2026 monthly operating report showed total receipts of about $198,339 against total disbursements of about $651,656 and a net loss of roughly $577,062 for the month, including about $312,591 in professional fees, against a total accumulated deficit of roughly $7.35 million. On the plan track, the court granted a first exclusivity extension, pushing the deadline to file a plan and disclosure statement to June 24, 2026 and the solicitation period to August 19, 2026. With the sale process still running, the debtors sought a further extension, and the court granted a second exclusivity extension on June 4, 2026, pushing the plan and disclosure statement deadline to August 20, 2026 and the solicitation period to October 19, 2026; the debtors have said the eventual plan might be a liquidating plan rather than a reorganization.
Key Timeline
Date
Event
1997
Tory Schwope begins planting nursery while at Kansas State
2016
DCA Outdoor, Inc. formed; Colonial Gardens acquired
2019
Brehob Nursery acquired
February 3, 2025
Frontier Farm Credit terminates forbearance
February 12, 2025
Frontier acceleration notice
February 20, 2025
chapter 11 petition filed (21 debtors)
February 24, 2025
First-day declaration and cash collateral motion filed
March 11, 2025
First DIP motion filed (Frontier, $3M)
May 27, 2025
Committee objection to DIP and cash collateral
August 25, 2025
Joint motion for trustee appointment filed
September 12, 2025
Order resolving trustee motion
September 18, 2025
Final CRO order (Brent King, effective Sept 11)
October 1, 2025
Summit DIP proposal withdrawn; Frontier substituted as lender
October 3, 2025
Final order on original $3M Frontier DIP facility
November 14, 2025
Final order on enlarged Frontier DIP facility
November 2025
Lewis Rice removed as debtors' counsel
December 1, 2025
Sale motion filed
December 11, 2025
Bidding procedures order
February 5, 2026
Valley Hill Tree Farm adversary filed (26-05001)
February 17, 2026
First-tranche sale to Powell Gardens approved ($6M)
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the DCA Outdoor bankruptcy cover?
DCA Outdoor is the nation's largest producer of balled-and-burlapped trees. The 21-debtor filing covers 12 brands spanning nursery production, wholesale distribution, and retail garden centers, jointly administered under lead case 25-50053 in the Western District of Missouri.
What caused DCA Outdoor's financial distress?
The debtors attributed the deterioration to the loss of a large customer that produced an approximately $3 million uncollectible receivable, plant disease at a major Oregon supplier, and reduced demand and pricing pressure across the landscape industry. Frontier Farm Credit terminated forbearance on February 3, 2025, and the chapter 11 filing followed about three weeks later.
Who bought DCA Outdoor's assets?
Powell Gardens, Inc. acquired the first tranche of retail, distribution, and production assets for $6 million, approved February 17, 2026. Blue Grass Farms, Inc. acquired a portion of the second tranche — Brehob Nurseries and the Indiana entities — for $12.2 million in cash, approved February 20, 2026. A third tranche of excess equipment moved through repeated notices of intent to auction, with a fourth notice filed July 7, 2026 and no new auction date set at that time.
What is the estate litigation against the founder and former professionals?
The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors filed two adversary proceedings: Adversary No. 26-05003 against former lead counsel Lewis Rice and partner Larry Parres, seeking disgorgement of roughly $1.5 million in fees, and Adversary No. 26-05004 against former CRO Focus Management Group and founder Tory Schwope, seeking disgorgement of roughly $1.6 million in FMG fees and damages tied to an inventory-valuation failure. The court denied without prejudice the stipulation that would have formally granted the committee derivative standing to pursue those claims.
How was DIP financing structured in this case?
The case used two Frontier Farm Credit facilities. An initial $3 million facility at SOFR plus 5.5% was fully repaid by September 2025. The debtors then proposed replacing it with an enlarged, $8.05 million facility from Summit Investment Management, but withdrew that proposal before approval and substituted Frontier as lender instead; the renegotiated Frontier facility was approved on a final basis November 14, 2025 at SOFR plus 5.00% (13.00% on default) with a 1.00% commitment fee.
Who is the claims agent for DCA Outdoor?
Stretto, Inc. serves as the claims and noticing agent, maintaining the official claims register for the 21 jointly administered cases in the Western District of Missouri.
Blue Grass Farms, Inc. https://www.nurserymag.com/news/blue-grass-farms-acquires-brehob-nursery-dca-outdoor/
Schwope's own bankruptcy estate https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2026/03/10/dca-outdoor-tory-schwope-personal-bankruptcy.html
This article was researched and written with AI assistance, using court filings, public records, and news sources. AI-generated content can contain errors. Verify all information against primary sources before relying on it. This is not legal or financial advice. See the disclaimer.
Partial second-tranche sale to Blue Grass Farms approved ($12.2M)
March 20, 2026
Order extending plan deadline to June 24, 2026
March 27, 2026
Valley Hill interim harvest compromise approved
April 14–16, 2026
UST objections to Lewis Rice and FMG final fee applications
May 6, 2026
Committee adversary against Lewis Rice and Larry Parres (26-05003)
May 22, 2026
April 2026 monthly operating report filed
June 2, 2026
Lewis Rice omnibus response to fee objections
June 4, 2026
Order rejecting Farm Credit equipment leases; second exclusivity extension granted (plan/DS to Aug 20, solicitation to Oct 19, 2026); derivative-standing hearing
June 11, 2026
Committee adversary against FMG and Tory Schwope (26-05004)
June 22, 2026
Buckner, Missouri real property sale to the Whartons approved ($306,000)
June 30, 2026
Oregon TD Farm/Jesse Warner lease settlement approved ($200,000)
July 3, 2026
Third-tranche bid deadline (reset)
July 7, 2026
Derivative-standing stipulation denied without prejudice; fourth notice of intent to auction (third tranche) filed