Borrego: Casa del Zorro coming back

An extremely reliable source says that at midnight tonight (Jan. 31), a press release will go out announcing that escrow has closed on the purchase of Borrego Springs's Borrego Ranch Resort & Spa (formerly La Casa del Zorro), now closed. It will be renamed La Casa del Zorro. As earlier reported here, the primary buyers will be former San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory, hotelier Jack Giacomini, and real estate entrepreneur Casey Brown. Price may or may not be revealed in the release. The seller will be a group of investors headed by Gregory Perlman of Sherman Oaks, who purchased the facility and other Borrego properties, but then ran into financial trouble. Perlman's group supposedly pumped millions into the resort which, he said, had been losing $5 million a year when San Diego's Copley publishing family owned it. Giacomini had done consulting work for the Copleys on the Casa, and thinks it has a great future. A so-called "soft opening" (one without pre-hoopla) is planned for May 1.