Chelsea Self/Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Chad Brownstein resigned his position as CEO of Rocky Mountain Resources Jan. 1, the company announced in a federal notice Friday.
But RMR’s financial situation is far from solid, according to the most recent federal finance disclosure.
“(RMR) does not have sufficient cash or other current assets, nor does it have an established and adequate source of revenues, to cover its operating costs and to allow it to continue as a going concern,” the filing states.
As a publicly-traded company, RMR Industrials, which owns the limestone quarry north of Glenwood Springs, has lost $35 million since 2014. The company was formed as Online Yearbook, which touted a platform for schools to create and print yearbooks. The company sold no yearbooks, according to financial disclosures.
Brownstein is the son of Norm Brownstein, founder of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a Denver-based law firm with deep political ties, and RMR’s lobbying firm. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt used to work for the firm before joining the Department of the Interior.
The company disclosed that it paid the firm $438,576 in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019.
Brownstein is not stepping away from RMR entirely. He will remain non-executive chairman of the board. Greg Dangler, current director and president, will become CEO and president.
Dangler and Brownstein still own a majority of the company.
The company appointed John Anderson, formerly vice president for The Quikrete Companies, as president.
In their latest federal finance disclosure, auditors included a statement expressing “substantial doubt as to (RMR’s) ability to continue as a going concern due to (RMR’s) limited liquidity and … lack of revenues.”
Still, RMR increased sales of limestone from the Glenwood Springs quarry, and that aspect of the business turned a small profit.
The company sold 34,060 tons of limestone for a total of $1.4 million in revenues in the year ending March 31, making about $126,000 profit.
But other expenses, including legal fees of $590,000 related to the quarry, consultants, payments to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and salaries amounted to more than $8 million.
Garfield County is not the only site for RMR’s dreams of development.
The filing notes a few bright spots that could turn the company around. One of those is the quarry expansion proposal, which is under review.
The other is known as the Rocky Mountain Rail Park, a newly rezoned industrial development east of Denver International Airport in Adams County.
RMR acquired 690 acres around the Union Pacific railroad near Bennett, Colo., and has started marketing it for sale or lease for industrial uses.
The rail park would also help RMR transport large quantities of limestone from Glenwood Springs around the country if the quarry expansion project is approved.
The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of considering the environmental impacts of the proposed quarry expansion in Glenwood Springs.