Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Trudy Busch Valentine and Peter Busch
Updated at 3:45 p.m. with a statement from Billy Busch.
Four Busch family siblings have submitted their own offer to buy Grant’s Farm a month after the Saint Louis Zoo withdrew its proposal to take over the popular St. Louis attraction.
The offer pits the heirs of August A. “Gussie” Busch, the beer baron who helped keep Anheuser Busch afloat through Prohibition, against each other in the fight over the animal park’s future. The remaining two siblings, Billy and Adolphus Busch, submitted their own offer to buy the south St. Louis County park last month, prompting the zoo to pull out.
The newest Busch sibling proposal would keep the park largely as it is for the long-term, spokesman Frank Hamsher told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hamsher declined to say how much the siblings are willing to pay but said it’s more than Billy and Adolphus’ $24 million offer.
“Our father, Gussie Busch, opened Grant’s Farm to the public so that others could share in its beauty, magic and fun,” the siblings said in a statement. “He wanted this wonderful place to be available for the public to enjoy in perpetuity, if possible with Busch family ownership, and we are committed to fulfill his vision.”
See also: Selling Grant's Farm: An inside look at the Busch family’s fight over the St. Louis landmark
Grant's Farm
Billy and Adolphus Busch at Grant's Farm.
Billy Busch, who wants to turn the longtime family retreat into a destination for his own beer brand Kräftig, submitted a plan in March to buy Grant’s Farm along with brother Adolphus. Billy’s proposal included building small, “authentic” food shops, a German-style tasting room and demonstration brewery, and family-focused additions, including a Busch family photo gallery, and bronze statues of the Busch siblings’ parents. The Clydesdales, free samples (of Kräftig), and free admission would stay.
See also: Billy Busch’s Plan for Grant’s Farm Is All About Family—and Beer
The remaining Busch siblings—Beatrice Busch von Gontard, Peter Busch, Trudy Busch Valentine, and Andrew D. Busch—supported the zoo’s plan for Grant’s Farm, which would have used the land to build a breeding facility for endangered animals, a “sky ride” gondola, a night zoo, and habitats for endangered species.
The zoo pulled its $30 million offer, which depended on a judge’s approval and voter approval of an $8.5 million tax for operating expenses, soon after Billy Busch submitted his counter offer for Grant’s Farm. Matthew W. Geekie, president of the Saint Louis Zoo Association board of directors, said the zoo did not want to be “a party to causing a split within the Busch family.”
St. Louis Magazine senior editor William Powell went in-depth into the family fight over the St. Louis attraction in his story "Selling Grant’s Farm," in the February issue. Billy Busch told Powell that it hurts on a personal level when his siblings claim his business isn’t successful enough to support Grant’s Farm or that he’ll lose the land to developers when he dies.
“Hell, I get their side,” Busch told SLM, “but does it bother me that they don’t have the faith in me and the respect for Dad’s will, which says he clearly wants it to go to one or more of his kids, to sell it to me? Deep down, yes, it does.”
Update: Billy Busch released the following statement:
This new offer from four of my six brothers and sisters is ironic because instead of buying, they’ve been wanting to sell Grant’s Farm all along.
With three of the four no longer residing in St. Louis, this offer comes on the heels of my recent proposal to buy and operate Grant’s Farm for the benefit of generations of St. Louisans to come. My offer of $24.1 million was accompanied by a comprehensive, 10-year business plan to enhance and continue running Grant’s Farm.
Their offer includes very few details and certainly no guarantees or assurances that they would not sell Grant’s Farm in the future to developers or other entities.
That said, I absolutely intend to continue pursuing the purchase of the property from our family trust, just as I have done since last November.
Additionally, I will petition Wells Fargo and my brother, Adolphus – both Co-Trustees of the family trust -- to seek a detailed, 10-year business plan and assurances that they have the financial wherewithal and business acumen to acquire and operate Grant’s Farm with or without InBev’s year-to-year lease arrangement.
I’ll also seek a written guarantee, if they are successful, that they won’t sell or subdivide the property for any reason whatsoever to further ensure the future of Grant’s Farm for the benefit of all St. Louisans.
The Co-Trustees are now doing their due diligence and closely examining my proposal, and I’m sure they will do the same with this new offer. Then, they will have to decide on the best course of action. So, we’ll see how this plays out.
On a personal note, I have bent over backwards in my proposal to ensure that each of my brothers and sisters had a caring and meaningful role in the future of Grant’s Farm, and offered each of them joint ownership provisions for the iconic and historic Bauernhof. Their offer, however, includes no such in-kind provisions for my brother, Adolphus, or me.
