The president of a Fort Lauderdale insolvency firm has been brought in to handle the liquidation of Penn Dutch Meat & Seafood Market, following the South Florida grocer's closure last week.

Penn Dutch appointed Philip J. von Kahle of Michael Moecker & Associates as its assignee Tuesday. As noted in the assignment for the benefit of creditors filings entered in Broward Circuit Court's Complex Business Division on Tuesday, Kahle will oversee the distribution of assets from the company's Hollywood and Margate stores, as well as its unfinished Sunrise location, in order to address its outstanding debts.

The independent butcher shop opened its initial Hollywood location in 1972 and added the Margate store in 2004.

Penn Dutch was ordered to shut its doors by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Commissioner Nikki Fried on Sept. 19 for violating Florida Statutes concerning public health and safety. Tests conducted at Penn Dutch's Hollywood and Margate locations in February and September showed positive results for listeria, a food-borne pathogen with a 20 percent mortality rate. Penn Dutch was found by the state agency to have continued to sell its products in a going-out-of-business sale despite being sanctioned for health-code violations.

Slatkin & Reynolds attorneys Jason E. Slatkin and Robert F. Reynolds are assisting Kahle with liquidating Penn Dutch's assets.

Kahle said although assignment for the benefit of creditors offers a quicker and more efficient alternative to bankruptcy, the liquidation of Penn Dutch presents a number of unique logistical challenges.

"I have no money to pay anybody — whether it's the [Penn Dutch] employees or FPL bills —and so my challenge at the moment is to ensure the public health and safety first," he said, noting the grocery store's freezers are still stocked with potentially contaminated food products. "The Margate location is 75,000 square feet, and most of that is almost 50,000 square feet of freezers that have red tape by the Department of Health. So I'm challenged now to make sure refrigeration and everything remains constant for the sake of public health."

Read the assignment:

Kahle said he has to address the concerns of creditors, including the more than 200 Penn Dutch employees now jobless in the wake of the store's closure, as well as National Cooperative Bank in Arlington, Virginia, the landlords of the properties, and claimants who have entered complaints against the company under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick M. Hunt has ordered Kahle to make an appearance Friday, Oct. 4. Kahle said he will be spending the next week collaborating with outside experts to develop a plan that will simultaneously satisfy the magistrate, creditors and public health standards.

"We have environmental engineers that are on standby, ready to come in and evaluate what needs to be done," he said, adding former Penn Dutch employees are also working with him to assist engineers in breaking down the refrigeration. Kahle added the plan will also require the sanitation of the storage equipment and the disposal of the contaminated foods, at which point the properties will be returned to their respective landlords.

"I've got to negotiate with all of these parties to try to move this forward and contain all of these issues, while trying to maximize the value for the benefit of these creditors," Kahle said. He noted much of Penn Dutch's value will likely come from its machinery.

"The problem is going to be the cost in cleaning up the equipment and clearing up the problems with the listeria," he said, noting the bacterial pathogen complicates an otherwise straightforward liquidation plan. "The twist here is this has to be cleaned up before any creditor is going to get money."

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