LakePoint Sporting Community is recapitalizing in a move to achieve its vision for becoming the premier travel sports vacation destination.
The LakePoint Land entity is filing a pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The filing is expected to allow LakePoint to quickly emerge with a clean balance sheet and strong financial outlook.
Rimrock Capital is the lender and main capital source for LakePoint and has been so for the past five years.
LakePoint is heralded as a premier family vacation sports destination with state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor facilities for athletic tournaments and scouting events. LakePoint hosts more than 40 sports, including baseball, softball, basketball, gymnastics and sand volleyball. LakePoint’s indoor complex, the Champions Center, was both the newest and busiest facility in the past year. The complex hosted 578 event days occurring from June 2016 to May 2017, making LakePoint a year-round destination.
During the brief bankruptcy process people should see few changes in the normal course of operations, said Bob Zurcher, Manager and CFO. LakePoint will continue to operate as before, existing management will remain, employees and vendors will continue to get paid in full and on time, and tournaments, events, and games will go on. LakePoint expects to grow ten percent this year.
Certain facilities and venues, including the indoor sports pavilion, the entertainment venues, and the surrounding hotels and restaurants, are not included in the Chapter 11 filing as they are not owned by LakePoint. LakePoint Land has acted as a master developer and sold parcels to third parties for development.
Rimrock and LakePoint plan to continue the legacy of master developing the 1,300-acre project. Rimrock already has purchased additional acreage around the campus and a new master plan is in the works. Rimrock has hired real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle and other professionals to help with the planning and analysis.
In November 2016, LakePoint Land deeded land to Rimrock as part of a loan workout. In the pre-arranged filing, Rimrock will contribute the land it now owns back to LakePoint Land. Rimrock’s debt will be converted to equity, making Rimrock the largest shareholder in the project. This will allow LakePoint to emerge from bankruptcy debt free and with the certainty of being clear of any claims. As part of the plan, existing shareholders will share in LakePoint’s future success.
While LakePoint’s development of athletic facilities started fast, growth of supporting businesses – from hotels to restaurants to entertainment venues – didn’t go fast enough to create a thriving economic system.
Progress on future projects already has started: Giant bulldozers, scrapers, and trucks are working around the clock on a road-bridge expansion. This significant project will extend LakePoint Parkway from Allatoona Road to Red Top Mountain Road and will serve as a catalyst for more development.
More than one million people visit LakePoint annually, which creates an economic impact of nearly $100 million from room nights at hotels, restaurant visits, shopping, and other entertainment.