Failed Heritage Plantation developer files for bankruptcy

DESTIN — Prominent local businessman Steve Riggs has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after investing millions of his own money in a failed large-scale residential community on the north end of Okaloosa County.

Riggs, one of the managing partners of the accounting firm of Carr, Riggs & Ingram, started the Southeastern Consulting and Development Company and was its director. Southeastern Consulting and Development Company was created to build Heritage Plantation, an 850-unit subdivision featuring a golf course, swimming complex, equestrian range and tennis courts on nearly 1,000-acres located between Crestview and Laurel Hill.

Riggs stopped development on the project about a year and a half ago, stating he had personally lost $6.5 million of his own money on Heritage Plantation.

According to Riggs’ bankruptcy filing, the Destin businessman has between $10 and $50 million worth of debt and $1 to $10 million in as-sets.

Heritage Plantation’s plans called for as many as 780 upscale homes in a gated community, with at least 25-foot setbacks. Only 57 of the 297 sites in the first two phases were sold.

To read the full story, see Wednesday’s edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News.