
The 68-year-old former Boy Scouts of America building is set to become the new headquarters for local architecture firm 3North. (Mike Platania photo)
Stan Anderson has gone from dealing in woodchippers and mulch to diving into real estate with a prominent building off West Broad as one of his initial deals.
The longtime head of Powhatan-based Virginia Wood Properties bought the former Boy Scouts of America building at 4015 Fitzhugh Ave. for $4.9 million last month.
The 13,300-square-foot building is currently being converted into a new headquarters for local architecture firm 3North.
Anderson’s leap into real estate follows his sale of Virginia Wood Properties about 18 months ago. He said he thinks the 25-year-old wood processing and mulch company was the first to offer colored mulch in the region.
“Whenever someone cleared any big property, they’d log and pile (the timber) all up. We’d come in with grinders and grind it all up, take the raw material to Ashland to process and color it, then sell it as colored mulch,” Anderson said.
The business grew gradually through its early years until Anderson began seeking out acquisitions of other mulch companies in the last decade. “It was a struggle at first,” he said. “But when it took off it really took off.”
The company eventually caught the eye of regional competitor Yard Works, which made an offer to Anderson. He accepted and sold his business and assets to Yard Works about a year and a half ago.
Since the deal included some real estate in mulch yards that Virginia Wood Properties owned around the region, Anderson planned to reinvest the proceeds into another property in a so-called 1031 exchange, a financial device through which individuals can defer paying capital gains taxes on a recent real estate sale.
That led him to Fitzhugh Avenue, which Petersburg-based Waukeshaw Development had bought in fall 2020 for $1.5 million. After putting in around $1 million for the 3North renovation, Waukeshaw owner Dave McCormack put the building on the market in January.
The sale to Anderson closed May 27, with One South Commercial’s Tom Rosman and Ken Campbell representing Waukeshaw in the sale. The parcel was most recently assessed at $1.5 million.
McCormack, who also owns Trapezium Brewing Co., said he had a good feeling the building would draw buyer interest.
“A lot of people know us for doing the adaptive reuse stuff and our reputation is really about that. This one may be a little more high-profile,” McCormack said. “You could really tell that it had a lot of potential and was in a good place. (The redevelopment and sale) went pretty much as we expected it to.”
Anderson, meanwhile, said he’s looking to continue adding to his portfolio.
“We’re just kind of getting started but the Fitzhugh property was a big deal. That was a cool, cool deal,” Anderson said, noting that he owns two other properties in Chesterfield and has a fourth under contract.
McCormack also has other projects in the pipeline in the region. Work continues on the former Richmond Association of Masonic Lodges building in Church Hill, which McCormack is converting into a Trapezium taproom. After initially aiming to open this summer, McCormack said he’s pushed the opening date back to the fall.
“We’re trying to open in a way that won’t stress out our upper management. We’re moving forward, but just a little slower,” he said.
Another Waukeshaw project on the horizon is Jenkins Park, a 10-acre riverfront entertainment park along the Appomattox River in Petersburg. The project been in the works since 2019 and though more remains to be done, McCormack said next week the park will be hosting the City of Petersburg’s official Independence Day fireworks show.
Ninety-eight years after California officials seized prime oceanfront land from a Black family that had built a thriving community there, a Los Angeles County commission voted Tuesday to return the property to the original owners’ family.
The descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, who purchased the land for $1,225 in 1912 and built it into a seaside resort for Black families, will retake ownership of Bruce’s Beach in the city of Manhattan Beach. The land had been taken from them in 1924 under the guise of eminent domain.
“For us as a family, this had a wonderful beginning. And then it turned into a tragic story for my family,” Anthony Bruce, the great- great-grandson of the Bruces, told NBC News. “Back in the day, prejudice was rampant. And unfortunately my family was the victim of a hate crime and the prejudice that was around during those times.
“So, now that this is finally taking place, for us as a family, we are greatly relieved, and we are so thankful that this has made such an impact on our nation.”

The resort included a lodge, café, dance hall and dressing tents with bathing suits for rent on land that now houses the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Training Center. The family remained steadfast despite acts of vandalism of visitors’ vehicles and an attack by the Ku Klux Klan. When it was clear the Bruces would not give in, the city seized the property and condemned the surrounding areas, claiming it would build a park in the area.
It was left undeveloped for more than 30 years.
The agreement returns the land to Marcus and Derrick Bruce, Anthony Bruce’s parents and the great-grandsons of Willa and Charles. They said they intend to lease the land back to L.A. County at $413,000 a year so the county lifeguard facilities at the site can continue operation. Other terms in the agreement also dictate that the family can sell the property back to the county for no more than $20 million, which likely will take place, Anthony Bruce said.

“I’m not sure if anything else needs to happen over there at Manhattan Beach, where it is extremely racially lopsided,” Bruce said. “The demographics there are affluent, Caucasian people. And so, for us to go over there and try to start mingling and getting involved is highly unlikely because of the things that have happened to my family and other Black families that have been there. I don’t feel like it’s a safe place for my family.”
The battle for the Bruces to reclaim the land began in April 2021, when Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn initiated the intricate process of setting up the transfer of property. Local advocacy groups, including Kavon Ward’s Where Is My Land and Justice for Bruce’s Beach, joined in and helped raise awareness of the seizure. California state Sen. Steven Bradford authored Bill 796, which gave Los Angeles County the legal authority to transfer the property to the descendants. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in September that moved the transfer of ownership closer to Tuesday’s final decision.
A change in state law was required to allow the county to transfer ownership. Additionally, county officials had to identify the Bruce family heirs and settle the various financial implications of transferring the property.
“To see how many people came together and rally to get this done and bringing this to the forefront of people’s minds … we thank you so much for that,” Anthony Bruce said. “We’re just really excited that this is happening, and we’re just overjoyed and overwhelmed by the magnitude of it, honestly.”
Bradford chastised Manhattan Beach for failing to publicly apologize for the City Council’s actions in the 1920s.
“Let’s be clear,” Bradford said. “The county is not giving anything back to the Bruce family. We are returning what was stolen.”
In just three years of existence, San Francisco-based company Sundae execs have reported raising at least $135 million in venture capital and expansion into 20 markets across the country. Co-founded by former executives at residential bridge lender LendingHome, Sundae taps into homesellers discontented by real estate agent fees as well as the growing pool of home investors.
But the fast-growing business hit a snag last week, announcing layoffs to 15% of its workforce.
“In order to protect our future and ensure Sundae is around for decades to come, we made some tough but important decisions,” Josh Stech, CEO of Sundae stated. “These decisions impacted 15% of our team members, primarily in our youngest markets.”
A spokesperson for Stech did not answer a question regarding the number of employees Sundae had. However, a TechCrunch article from last July pegged Sundae’s headcount at “180 mostly remote employees.”
But the TechCrunch story also reported the company is “closing in” on an $80 million round of fundraising, which would result in new hires. As of last July, Sundae operated in 14 markets. Today the company is in 20 locales, including three new operations in South Carolina and additional offices in California.
One employee who had been laid off and spoke on the condition of anonymity said she had received assurances no layoffs would take place. However, she said, company circumstances quickly changed.
“I received a Zoom seminar invite on the morning of June 16,” she said. “I couldn’t see who was invited, so I assumed it was a layoff announcement.”
Her assumption was confirmed once her Slack messaging platform became deactivated.
“I was surprised and not surprised at the same time,” she said of the layoffs, noting the company had acknowledged “slower than expected growth” in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
Stech described the pink slipped employees as, “Wonderful people we would have loved to keep under different circumstances. We did our best to communicate these changes in a way that aligned with our values of empathy and transparency.”
For the areas in which it operates, Sundae is a matchmaker between home seller and home investor.
“Sundae’s marketplace helps homeowners sell their property in as-is condition, quickly and for the best price,” Stech explained.
Under the business model, a homeowner reaches out to Sundae to sell their home for cash. Representatives at Sundae conduct an in-person home inspection and evaluate the cost of any repairs or refurbishment. Then, with a valuation and repair number, Sundae kicks the home over to a pool of registered investors who bid for it.
For the seller, the stated appeal of such a model is that Sundae – unlike a real estate agent or an iBuying company – does not charge a 5-6% fee off the sale price. Sundae, instead, makes its money from fees investors pay. Also, like an iBuyer, the seller is able to quickly exit their abode.
As for investors, Sundae provides a pipeline of possible asset purchases. About 18% of all homebuyers in the fourth quarter of 2021 were investors, according to Redfin, with an investor defined as any institution or business who does not plan to use the house as a primary residence.
However, in practice, the former employee said, the arrangement doesn’t always work.
“A lot of times they were struggling to convert the homeowner because the offers they would get would be rather low compared to what the homeowner felt the home was worth,” she said.
Sometimes the potential seller would then ditch Sundae, the former employee claimed, and take their business to an iBuyer like Opendoor.
Stech co-founded the company with Andrew Swain, now Sundae’s chief financial officer, the same position he held at LendingHome, an online mortgage bank specializing in short-term bridge loans.
Connie Kim contributed reporting
But it still predates the 5% & 6% holy-moly mortgage rates, whose impact on prices we’ll only see in a few months.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The first “deceleration” and “signs of a tipping point” cropped up in the S&P CoreLogic Home Price Index, which was released today. But today’s data for “April” consists of the three-month average of closed home sales that were entered into public records in February, March, and April, representing deals that were made a few weeks earlier, roughly in January, February, and March, funded with mortgage rates prevalent at that time and earlier for home buyers with pre-approved mortgages with rate locks when they were pre-approved, so roughly based on the mortgage rates prevalent in December through March, ranging from 3.2% to 4.7% (green box):
Other indicators of the housing market that don’t lag as far behind have shown more advanced shifts in the underlying dynamics, including sagging sales amid a surge in supply in May, a sharp drop in mortgage applications in May and into June, and a surge in active listings in May.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index will gradually begin to reflect those dynamics over the next few months. Today’s release for “April,” looking back at a period earlier this year, when mortgage rates were a lot lower, still reflects the mad scramble to buy a home and lock in the mortgage rates at the time before they rise even further.
The National Case-Shiller Index still jumped by 2.1% in April from March, but that was down from the 2.6% spike in March. Year-over-year, the index spiked by 20.4%, but that was down from the 20.6% spike in the prior month. This suggests “further deceleration ahead,” said CoreLogic Deputy Chief Economist Selma Hepp said in a note this morning.
“In particular, there is a buildup in overall active inventory as fewer buyers are rushing to make offers, resulting in an increase in the share of homes that have reduced their prices from the original list price,” Hepp said.
“Also, there is a notable deceleration of monthly gains in the Western markets where a rush to lock in favorable mortgage rates pushed home price growth higher in prior months,” Hepp said.
The top three most splendid housing bubbles.
San Diego metro: Prices of single-family houses jumped by 2.3% in “April” (average of February, March, and April), but that was down from the 3.7% spike in “March.” Year-over-year prices spiked by 29.0%, but that was down from 29.6% in March – hence first signs of “deceleration.”
The index value of 426 for San Diego means that home prices exploded by 326% since January 2000, when the index was set at 100, despite the plunge in the middle.
This price growth of 326% since 2000 is 4.5 times the rate of CPI inflation (+73.2%), which crowns San Diego the most splendid housing bubble on this list, followed by Los Angeles and Seattle. All charts here are on the same index scale as San Diego.
Los Angeles metro: The Case-Shiller index jumped by 2.0% in April from March, but that was down from the 3.3% spike in March. Year-over-year, it spiked by 23.4%. The index value of 419 indicates that house prices exploded by 319% since January 2000, making the Los Angeles metro the second most splendid housing bubble on this list:
Seattle metro: The index jumped by 2.3% for the month, but as crazy as that seems, it was less than half the 5.6% spike in the prior month – another sign of the “deceleration.” Year-over-year, the index spiked by 26.1%, but that was down from 27.7% in the prior month. Since January 2000, house prices spiked by 312%, 4.3 times the rate of CPI inflation:
It’s just house price inflation.
The Case-Shiller Index uses the “sales pairs” method, comparing the price of a house when it sells in the current period to the price when it sold previously. It incorporates adjustments for home improvements. By tracking how many dollars it took to buy the same house over time (methodology), it measures the purchasing power of the dollar with regards to the same house, and is thereby a measure of house price inflation.
The other most splendid housing bubbles in the 20 City Case-Shiller Index.
San Francisco Bay Area (five-counties covering San Francisco, part of Silicon Valley, part of the East Bay, and part of the North Bay): House prices jumped by 2.2% for the month, but that was just about half of the 4.3% spike in March. Year-over-year, the index jumped by 22.9%, but that was down from the 24.1% spike in the prior month – hence the “deceleration”:
Miami metro: The index spiked 3.4% for the month, down from the 3.6% spike in the prior month. Alas, year-over-year, it spiked by 33.3%, up from 32.0%, the fastest ever in the data, faster even than at the apex of the Housing Bubble 1, before Miami’s epic Housing Bust:
Tampa metro: House prices spiked by 3.0% for the month, but that was down from the 3.7% spike in the prior month. Year-over-year, prices spiked by 33.3%, down from 34.8%, which had been a record that had out-spiked the craziness just before the Tampa’s epic housing bust:
Phoenix metro: The index jumped by 2.5% for the month, down 3.0%. Year-over-year, it spiked by 31.3%, down from 32.4%, and the 10th month in a row of over-30% year-over-year spikes:
Portland metro: +2.2% for the month, down from +2.9%; and +19.1% year-over-year, down from +19.3%:
Boston metro: +2.8% for the month, up from +2.6%; and +15.1% year-over-year, up from 14.5%:
Washington D.C. metro: +1.9% for the month, down from +2.9%; and +12.7% year-over-year, down from 12.9%:
Denver metro: +2.5% for the month, down from 4.5%; and +23.6% year-over-year, down from 23.7%:
Las Vegas metro: +2.3% for the month, down from 3.1%, and +28.4% year-over-year, down from 28.5%:
Dallas metro: +3.2% for the month, down from 4.3%; and +31.0% year-over-year, a new record, up from +30.7%:
New York metro, the huge market within commuting distance to New York City (“New York Commuter,” as the Case-Shiller calls it): +2.0% for the month, up from +1.6%; and +14.3% year-over-year, up from +13.7%. With its index value of 268, the New York Commuter metro has experienced 168% house price inflation since January 2000, 2.3 times the rate of CPI inflation.
The remaining cities in the 20-City Case-Shiller Index (Chicago, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Detroit, and Cleveland) have had less house price inflation and don’t qualify for this list.
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One reason why Charleston’s affordable housing problem has remained so severe, despite decades of attention and action, is because some of the victories — some efforts to build new housing to rent or sell to the city’s working-class residents — have been temporary ones.
Many affordable housing complexes have been financed through arrangements that only required rents to be subsidized and kept at lower price points for a certain number of years, after which the owner could sell or rent them at market rates. Clearly, homes built under such deals were valuable inasmuch as they helped address the needs of their day, but they did not guarantee that they would meet residents’ affordable housing needs in the decades to come.
That’s why Charleston officials held a celebration Tuesday at North Central Apartments at 1054 King St., one of the complexes built by the Humanities Foundation under such a deal more than a decade ago.
What Mayor John Tecklenburg and City Councilman Robert Mitchell were celebrating was not the expiration of rental subsidies and the arrival of pricier, market-rate rents. They were celebrating their permanent extension, as the Charleston Redevelopment Corporation, through its Palmetto Land Trust program, purchased the handsome, three-story brick complex. It sold for $5 million, including $1.5 million contributed by the city from its share of the Charleston Place loan repayment, and the trust will work to ensure the apartments always remain affordable.
The common room inside Charleston’s North Central senior living apartment complex, as it looked a decade ago. A new housing trust is buying the complex to ensure its rents remain affordable. Staff/file
The complex includes 36 units built for residents at least 55 years old and on fixed incomes; its rents were set to be affordable for those with incomes around 60% of the average median income, about $34,000 for a family of one or $39,000 for a family of two. North Central was built in an ideal location, across from a grocery store, a drug store, a library and other businesses and services. When the project broke ground in 2003, then-Mayor Joe Riley celebrated how the new complex would create more of a gathering place in this part of the city.
The North Central Apartments purchase ranks among the first big moves by the Palmetto Community Land Trust, which was created just a few years ago with help from the city, the Charleston Housing Authority and the Historic Charleston Foundation. The new nonprofit not only has the flexibility to buy existing units as well as to build new units on vacant land, but it also can qualify for grants that otherwise wouldn’t be available to the city. “We own the dirt,” says Geona Shaw Johnson, who directs the city’s Housing and Community Development Department and also serves as the trust’s vice president. “The improved product or home belongs to the end buyer, but that dirt stays in the trust for perpetuity.”
The trust’s first major accomplishment was its purchase of Sea Island Apartments, a 48-unit affordable complex on Johns Island, and the trust already owns more than 100 other units, including some new affordable homes built in the city’s Rosemont and Ashleyville-Maryville neighborhoods.
The trust’s web site recaps the need: The percentage of renters who spend a majority of their income on rent doubled from 24% in the 1960s to almost 48% in 2016, and anyone vaguely familiar with the local real estate market knows home prices have risen far faster than workers’ wages for many years. The growing gap between what workers can afford and what the market is providing is widely considered one of the greatest challenges to the Charleston region’s future prosperity.
We encourage banks, nonprofits and others to continue to support the Charleston Redevelopment Corporation’s trust program, because our lack of affordable housing isn’t just a problem for the least wealthy among us. It’s a problem for all of us.
(WFSB) – For some towns it’s that time of year for buildings and homes to have their reassessments conducted by their town’s tax assessors.
Eyewitness News talked with a local tax assessor to understand all that goes into this process and what you need to know to effectively and safely prepare for your evaluation.
“It actually makes me nervous because my wife and I both retired and I am disabled so we are on a fixed income,” said Wayne Gates of Rockville.
Gates has lived in his home for seven years and says he is always monitoring his taxes.
“You know rising property values sounds like a good thing but only if you are going to sell or downsize we are not going to sell to buy something else that is expensive,” said Gates.
Each town in Connecticut is on a different schedule for when they do tax reassessments on properties, but the process is similar.
“We start a year early and we go out and we inspect all the properties that we collect data whether its income data or sales and then we tabulate that,” said David Wheeler, Vernon Town Assessor. “Then put it in the computer on what the value will be.”
Wheeler said it’s completely normal for homeowners to be concerned if they see people walking around their property.
“First thing you do is to see what kind of car are they driving does it have a decal or some kind of identification like the town of, and if they don’t which may be the case,” said Wheeler.
Homeowners do have a right to participate or reschedule.
“And if you do find them on your property number one you have the opportunity to say I don’t want you on my property and you don’t have to let me come in the house,” Wheeler said.
“If before they did anything else if they just would come up to the door and announce themselves with an ID badge because you just never know,” Gates said.
Wheeler said if you are curious to find out when your town is conducting their assessments you can find that information on their local town website.
Copyright 2022 WFSB. All rights reserved.
WOODSTOCK, Va. (WHSV) – The Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors is set to meet on Tuesday night. During the meeting, the board will hold a second public hearing on the potential sale of a Mount Jackson property that has some people in the county upset.
During the first public hearing on June 14, several county residents expressed concerns over the proposed sale of a county property along the 300 block of Tisinger Road in Mount Jackson just off of Interstate 81.
The property was gifted to the county by the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office in 2018 and contains two buildings that have primarily been used for storage.
A local buyer has made an offer to buy the property for $605,000, but some feel the county should market the property to try to get a better offer.
“We know what the plan for the offer that has come in is for. They’re a growing business looking to expand, this facility works for what they’re trying to do. They’re a local business, it would be nice to support our local businesses,” said Karl Roulston, Chair of the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors.
Shenandoah County residents have told WHSV that the buyer is Nancy Barnett, treasurer of the county’s Republican party and President of Industrial Maintenance Solutions Inc.
The board says no decision has been and made the feedback gathered on Tuesday night will play a big role in how it proceeds.
“Step one is it ok to sell the property? Step two is the offer good enough or do we think that we could get more? That’s gonna decide whether we go to auction, sealed bid, or whatever,” said Roulston.
Roulston said that from what he has heard the public doesn’t appear to have any issues with the county selling the property but wants to make sure that the profit the county gets from selling it is maximized.
Following Tuesday’s public hearing, the board will have a number of different options for how to proceed.
“We don’t have to accept this offer. We could go to an auction, we could have a sealed bid auction, we could potentially turn it over to the IDA (Industrial Development Authority) and let them deal with the property,” said Roulston.
The board could also market the property to see if any offers come in but Roulston said so far there doesn’t appear to be much interest from other potential buyers.
“Honestly we’ve heard nothing and we can’t pretend that this is a secret now, it’s been covered, we’ve had a public hearing, and yet still no other offers have come in for this building,” he said.
The Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors is meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Board Room of the County Government Center in Woodstock.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.
Data from the National Association of Realtors shows a rise in investors and companies buying up residential homes in this resurging real estate market.
The report, released in May, shows Ohio 9th in the nation when it comes to “institutional buyers,” making up 16% of all home buyers in 2021.

It comes at a time when homes in Northeast Ohio are selling at prices never before seen in the market.
Data from MLS Now, a realty listing service in the area, shows the average home is selling for 10 thousand dollars more than it did during the peak of last year’s housing market, with the average single family home selling for more than $247,000 in May 2022.
Institutional buyers are typically corporations or companies that place all-cash offers on homes and turn them into rentals.
For Lydia Pope, the president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (known as NAREB), she’s experiencing more all-cash offers than ever before, including just last week.
“We had a strong offer,” she said. “Thirty percent down, a conventional loan and still we were beat out by a cash offer.”
Historically speaking, Ohio is one of the more affordable areas to buy a home. It’s the same affordability that experts say makes Ohio one of the most popular states for investors looking to buy homes.
“You can get four or five properties for the price of one or two in a bigger area,” Pope added.
Pope is set to testify virtually on Wednesday before Congress and the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, specifically addressing appraisal biases, down payment assistance, this hot housing market and the investors it’s drawing in.
“What happens is that it strips away the American dream of home ownership when a person has to rent versus buying a home,” she said. “You’re taking away that generational wealth.”
Pope told News 5 there is something that homeowners planning to sell can do to help in today’s real estate market.
“We can’t discriminate, we can’t steer, but we can say when you have a buyer that wants to buy a home, this is their dream,” she said. “Maybe it was your dream. How did sellers buy their house? Did they buy it in cash? Did they buy it by financing? Well, the same person wants to do the same thing.”
Four Seasons Health Care, one of the largest senior living providers in England, announced it is placing a majority of its portfolio up for sale three years after its parent companies dealt with insolvency.
The company has tapped the services of agency and advisory business Christie & Co. to sell 111 care homes across the U.K. under the banner of the Four Seasons Health Care and Brighterkind brands, according to a press release.
“The launch of this sale process represents a key milestone in the group’s ongoing restructuring process,” the release from Christie & Co. noted.
The properties employ about 10,000 people and house around 6,000 older adults, with the majority of homes comprising 40 bedrooms. A significant proportion of the homes for sale are purpose-built or have purpose-built additions, and almost half of them offer opportunities to expand.
The release also noted that the company’s have recovered well from the Covid-19 pandemic, and are now adding occupancy and driving rate increases.
The 111 properties represent the company’s “remaining freehold property portfolio and associated care home business,” according to Christie & Co.
The sell-off, first reported by Sky News, comes on the heels of a March public meeting in which Four Seasons executives said they would consider all options to reorganize the company, including property sales.
Four Seasons Health Care Group Interim CEO Joe O’Connor said the company’s priority remains caring for residents while the properties are marketed for sale.
“The group will work closely with Christie & Co, potential buyers, and other counterparties, as well as all relevant regulators, to ensure that the sales process and the transition of care homes to new ownership is seamless,” O’Connor said.
Four Seasons fell into financial woes in April of 2019 after ownership by the Terra Forma Capital Partners led by financier Guy Hands since 2012, Sky News reported.
Sky News reports the insolvency of Four Seasons was the “biggest insolvency in the care homes sector since Southern Cross collapsed in 2011” in the U.K.
The sale comes as some American companies shift their operational strategies for the U.K.
McLean, Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living announced last year plans to transfer management of all its U.K.-based care homes to local operators. And Welltower (NYSE: WELL) is working with real estate company Reuben Brothers on a RIDEA JV development program that the REIT said could “generate significant future growth opportunities through the development of the next generation of senior housing properties in the UK.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Bally’s Corporation (NYSE: BALY) today announced that it has entered into a binding term sheet with GLP Capital, L.P. (“GLP”), the operating partnership of Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLPI) (“GLPI”), to acquire the real property assets of Bally’s two Rhode Island casino properties – Bally’s Twin River Lincoln Casino Resort (“Lincoln“) and Bally’s Tiverton Casino & Hotel (“Tiverton“) – subject to customary regulatory approvals, with Lincoln also subject to lender consent. Pursuant to the terms of the transaction, Bally’s will immediately lease back both properties and continue to own, control, and manage all the gaming operations of the facilities on an uninterrupted basis. Total consideration for the acquisition is $1 billion.
Bobby Lavan, Chief Financial Officer of Bally’s, said, “Bally’s is excited to enter into this transaction with GLPI, further strengthening our growing relationship. The transaction will provide the Company with significant, long-term liquidity, ensuring that Bally’s is best positioned to continue executing its capital and strategic plan, as well as to capitalize on future opportunities presented in the market.”
Both properties are expected to be added to the existing Bally’s Master Lease (the “Master Lease”) between GLPI and Bally’s, with incremental rent of $76.3 million. The Master Lease has an initial term of 15 years (with 14 years remaining) followed by four five-year renewals at the tenant’s option. Normalized rent coverage on the Master Lease – which includes Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, Bally’s Evansville Casino & Hotel, Bally’s Quad Cities Casino & Hotel and Bally’s Black Hawk Casinos – is expected to be 2.0x in the first calendar year following the completion of the acquisition of the real property assets of Bally’s Rhode Island properties.
In connection with GLP’s commitment to consummate the Bally’s acquisitions, it also agreed to pre-fund, at Bally’s election, a deposit of up to $200 million, which will be credited or repaid to GLP at the earlier of closing and December 31, 2023. In addition, Bally’s will pay a $9 million transaction fee at closing.
If all third-party consents and approvals for the acquisition of Lincoln are not timely received, then GLP will instead acquire the real property assets of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Mississippi along with Tiverton for total consideration of $635 million and a combined annual rent for Tiverton and Biloxi of $48.5 million. In that event, GLP will also have the option, subject to receipt of required consents, to acquire the real property assets of Lincoln prior to December 31, 2024 for a purchase price of $771 million and additional rent of $58.8 million.
About Bally’s Corporation
Bally’s Corporation is a global casino-entertainment company with a growing omni-channel presence of Online Sports Betting and iGaming offerings. It currently owns and manages 14 casinos across 10 states, a horse racetrack in Colorado and has access to OSB licenses in 18 states. It also owns Gamesys Group, a leading, global, online gaming operator, Bally Interactive, a first-in-class sports betting platform, Monkey Knife Fight, the fastest growing daily fantasy sports site in North America, SportCaller, a leading, global B2B free-to-play game provider, and Telescope Inc., a leading provider of real-time fan engagement solutions.
With approximately 10,000 employees, Bally’s Casino operations include more than 15,800 slot machines, 500 table games and 5,300 hotel rooms. Upon closing the previously announced Tropicana Las Vegas (NV) transaction, as well as completing the construction of a land-based casino near the Nittany Mall in State College, PA, Bally’s will own and manage 16 casinos across 11 states. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BALY.”
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements may generally be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan” and “will” or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. As a result, these statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual events may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by Bally’s in this press release, its reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and other public statements made from time-to-time speak only as of the date made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible for Bally’s to predict or identify all such events or how they may affect it. Bally’s has no obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by federal securities laws. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to those included it Bally’s Annual reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports filed by Bally’s with the SEC. These statements constitute Bally’s cautionary statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Investor Contact
Robert Lavan
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
401-475-8564
[email protected]
Media Contact
Richard Goldman
Kekst CNC
646-847-6102
[email protected]
BALY-CAS
SOURCE Bally’s Corporation