A winery operating out of a converted warehouse in south Temecula has filed for bankruptcy protection amid stalled plans to build a permanent facility in Wine Country.

Rancho de Andallusia Vineyard & Winery LLC owes between $1 million and $100 million to a total of 55 creditors, according to documents filed in federal bankruptcy court in Riverside on Wednesday. The attorney handling the company's Chapter 11 filing said it would stay in business and emerge from bankruptcy by mid-September. The winery was closed this week, and managers didn't return calls seeking comment Friday.

The temporary tasting room and banquet facility, on the back side of a shopping center near the intersection of Butterfield Stage Road and Highway 79 South, opened in March 2006. The company has also planned to build a permanent winery on a 42-acre vineyard at the northeast corner of Rancho California Road and Calle Contento.

"They ran out of capital to build," bankruptcy attorney Michael Spector said Friday.

The company's managing members hope to nail down financing within two months, allowing them to pay off current debt and continue operating, Spector said. The might also sell the company, he said.

The building plans and the status of the land are also the subject of two lawsuits against the company and against Larry O'Keefe and Howard Wedertz, whom the suits identify as its managing members. A suit filed June 8 alleges that O'Keefe and Wedertz misrepresented the company's financial condition in order to convince Dennis Cullen and 12 other plaintiffs to invest a total of $700,000 in Rancho de Andallusia. The plaintiffs allege that the two men owned the 42 acres in Wine Country but failed to transfer it to the winery when the investors put in their money early last year.

Rancho de Andallusia bought the land in a pair of related transactions this spring, according to the Riverside County assessor's office, which values it at $3.8 million.

Wedertz and O'Keefe couldn't be reached for comment Friday. Attorneys for the two men didn't respond to requests for comment.

The two also allegedly misled investors into thinking that the winery had lined up permits to build and open the winery on Rancho California Road, according to Cullen's lawsuit. The winery still hasn't received all the necessary permits, the lawsuit alleged.

A separate lawsuit, filed in April in Riverside federal court, demands repayment of $50,000 that was allegedly invested. The company's bankruptcy filing valued its assets, like its debts, within the range of $1 million to $100 million.

John Mesa, an artist and former marketing consultant for the company, said he received a $50,000 equity share in the company in lieu of cash for the murals he painted across the walls of the winery's banquet room on Wolf Store Road. Mesa said he was one of several people who agreed to accept "sweat equity" in exchange for work.

"Who's going to invest in a business if it doesn't have any equity?" Mesa asked. "It's too bad, because this was a dream for a lot of us. There's a lot of love in that building."

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.