The attorney representing Celebration Pointe said local citizens should not expect the ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to impact businesses or events planned for the property in southwest Gainesville.
Scott Shuker, an Orlando-based lawyer who specializes in Chapter 11 cases, is representing three Celebration Pointe entities that filed for bankruptcy on March 11 in federal court. On Friday he said the process will likely take six to nine months.
“The idea is that the entity will exist post-Chapter 11,” Shuker said in a phone interview. “It’s to put a pause on the immediate payment of certain debts while we come up with a global reorganization plan.”
The entities have a combined debt load of more than $100 million. Shuker said the three entities were balancing seven or eight lenders who are all entitled to monthly payments.
“That cashflow burden became too much to manage because of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising interest rates,” he said.
Shuker said negotiations between Celebration Pointe and its creditors have been ongoing for about 18 months and there were “a lot of efforts” to do something short of a Chapter 11 filing.
“There were a couple of creditors who would not play ball,” Shuker said. “To do an out-of-court workout, everybody has to play nice in the sandbox. Two of the creditors refused to play nice. Once a creditor has decided to not cooperate, the only way to restructure a debt is Chapter 11.”
Shuker said he has handled Chapter 11 filings for companies such as Appliance Direct, Planet Hollywood and Brio restaurants, and he expects Celebration Pointe to come through the restructuring as those companies did.
Unlike Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which involves liquidation and shutdown, Shuker said locals should not feel an impact from the Chapter 11 filing for the three entities he represents. He said there are about 10 total Celebration Pointe entities, the rest of which are unaffected.
“There’s a separate company that is not in bankruptcy that is the owner of the property,” he said. “The ones with tenants involved are not impacted. They’re going to continue on.”
Shuker said developments in process at Celebration Pointe are not affected, including the apartment complex under construction.
He also said the Alachua County Sports and Events Center is not affected, although he could not say whether plans to purchase West End Golf Course for the 2025 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships were still on track, since he does not represent the entity involved.
This week Alachua County, which opened the center last year, released a statement saying officials are monitoring the situation but they expect normal operations to continue.
This bankruptcy involves three LLCs. For reference, consider this. Donald Trump runs his worldwide empire using LLCs. He has some 500 of them, each a separate corporation. The Celebration Pointe development is operated by an overlapping group of 50 to 60 LLCs, all owned by one person. That is not a typo. Only 3 are in bankruptcy, the other 57 are not. One is “SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC” and you can guess who “SHD” is. Public records at the DOS in Tallahassee.
As for the claim “Celebration Pointe pays so much taxes,” well, they seem to be tax deadbeats. Take parcel 6820-2-14. It is the location of Spurriers restaurant but is owned by “SDPS Real Estate Investment V LLC”. Spurrier apparently just licenses his name. You can guess who the “SD” in the owners name refers to. (Many of the LLCs have the same name with Roman numerals at the end, this is “V” of I thru VI.) The taxes on this parcel were not paid in 2019 and 2021 and the tax collector sold tax certificates to out of town investors. Public records, Alachua County, look it up. Next time you are enjoying a $50 steak at Spurriers remind yourself you are patronizing an outfit that does not pay its taxes. Great corporate citizenship at its finest.
Remember that in 2021 Alachua County gave SD $30 million public tax dollars to build a tin barn Sports Center, yet in 2021 SD did not pay his taxes to Alachua County. How nice.
The bankruptcy court will have a huge task sorting out the financial relationships of these 60 LLCs. Perhaps that is the point? Hmmmm. . .
Pointe – Well researched and appreciated. This explnation, coupled with the arrogance of the C.11 attorney (“There were a couple of creditors who would not play ball,” Shuker said. “To do an out-of-court workout, everybody has to play nice in the sandbox. Two of the creditors refused to play nice. Once a creditor has decided to not cooperate, the only way to restructure a debt is Chapter 11.” ) boils me. There are losers in any C.11 when debts are not repaid. It appears that doesn’t matter to this attorney and his team —but what do I know. I’m j ust a taxpayer who repays debts and always pays his taxes, right?
Who let in the troll? Anyway, how bout a name to fill in the initials? What you afraid of?
“He said there are about 10 total Celebration Pointe entities.”
It is disturbing and sad when an attorney spreads misinformation.
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Some data from sunbiz and Alachua County. ALL public records.
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Three corporations are in the bankruptcy filing.
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1. SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC owns no property under its own name. However it owns and manages a few shell corporations to keep a lot of lawyers and accountants employed. This is the “about 10” the attorney referred to. In Lawyer Math, 49 = About 10.
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SHD MANAGEMENT, LLC L07000009973
CELEBRATION POINTE DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS, LLC L13000093292
CELEBRATION POINTE HOLDINGS, LLC L13000094626
CP INVESTMENTS, LLC L13000161993
CELEBRATION POINTE HOLDINGS II, LLC L14000024849
CELEBRATION POINTE OFFICE PARTNERS II, LLC L14000103054
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS, LLC L15000201666
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS II, LLC L16000213407
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS III, LLC L17000055186
43RD STREET HOTEL PARTNERS, LLC L17000143224
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS IV, LLC L17000213876
5001 SECOND FLOOR PARTNERS, LLC L17000220432
SHD VUE INVESTMENTS, LLC L17000259380
THE VUE AT CELEBRATION POINTE, LLC L18000029714
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS V, LLC L18000065802
THE SHOPS AT CELEBRATION POINTE, LLC L18000122802
CP REST T545, LLC L19000104491
SPURRIER’S GRIDIRON GRILLE CELEBRATION POINTE, LLC L19000104531
GNV RE CP FUND, LLC L19000119192
GNV RE FUND 1, LLC L19000129086
CP CITY PLACE PARTNERS, LLCL19000166538
CELEBRATION POINTE OFFICE PARTNERS III, LLC L19000191359
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS VI, LLC L19000281619
HBC RESTAURANT BRANDS, LLC L20000020971
GNV RE FUND 3, LLC L20000130332
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS VII, LLC L20000379317
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED, LLC L21000002221
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS VIII, LLC L21000171174
CELEBRATION POINTE RETAIL PARTNERS, LLC L21000357895
CELEBRATION POINTE OFFICE PARTNERS IV, LLC L21000430204
PERFECT PAIRINGS CATERING, LLC L21000430744
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED II LLC L22000090096
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED III, LLC L22000154226
CITY PLACE II AT CELEBRATION POINTE, LLC L22000154295
CP RESIDENTIAL EQUITY PARTNERS, LLC L22000292248
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED IV, LLC L22000293611
CP PROMENADE 2 RESIDENTIAL, LLC L22000293665
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS IX, LLC L22000360690
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED V, LLC L22000385168
THE PLACE B1B2 AT CELEBRATION POINTE, LLC L22000385193
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED VI, LLC L22000393974
CP REST T560, LLC L22000534663
CP REST KEYS, LLC L23000092497
CP REST HOLDINGS, LLC L23000099161
CP EVENT CENTER HOSPITALITY, LLC L23000099206
SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS X, LLC L23000231839
CP HOLDINGS CONSOLIDATED VII, LLC L23000297239
VUE-C, LLC L23000503125
VUE-F, LLC L23000519525
(Note: there are many many more shell LLCs under different names. These are just the SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC ones.)
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2. Celebration Pointe Holdings LLC owns 6 parcels. None of the 2023 property taxes have been paid on them. Due by May 31. The bankruptcy filing prevents tax certificates from being sold.
6820-2-18, 6820-4-1, 6937-4-0 are tiny and of little value. However
-6820-2-0 owes $36,500 for 2023 taxes.
-6828-7-0 owes $26,700 for 2023 taxes. In addition, it never paid its 2022 taxes and a tax certificate was sold for 33,206. CPH owes this investor repayment plus interest.
-6818-0-0 owes $23,000 for 2023 taxes. It never paid its taxes for 2018, and a tax certificate for $17,677 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2019, and a tax certificate for $21,486 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2021, and a tax certificate for $27,402 was sold.
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3. Celebration Pointe Holdings II LLC owns one parcel.
6820-3-0 owes $24,000 for 2023 taxes. It never paid its taxes for 2018, and a tax certificate for $29,714 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2021, and a tax certificate for $28,759 was sold; it never paid its taxes for 2022, and a tax certificate for $28,003 was sold.
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Not counting the other shell corporations, just the three bankrupt companies owe $110,200 for 2023 taxes and owe $186,247 to redeem the tax certificates for taxes they never paid between 2018 and 2022.
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The interlocking shell companies obfuscate tracing the money flow. For example, SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC owns the restaurant SPURRIER’S GRIDIRON GRILLE CELEBRATION POINTE LLC. However, the land the restaurant sits on, parcel 6820-2-14, is owned by SDPS REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS V LLC, which is owned by SHD-Celebration Pointe LLC. See how easy this is to track? (The bankruptcy court better have a darn good world class accountant.)
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Celebration Pointe has not been paying Alachua County the annual property taxes it owes, yet in 2021 Alachua County gave Celebration Point $30,000,000 tax dollars to build a Sports Center. Why? For whose benefit?
Incredible research, would love to know how you find all this info!
EZ once you learn how to do it. Florida has a great Public Records law, although the Republican Legislature and Governor hate public records (so do shady businessmen) and make more and more things exempt (hidden) every year. 🙁
Just bookmark these five URLs.
The Alachua County Clerk’s office has a great web site. You can search Public Records, which is the Official Records book, which is deeds and mortgages; and Court Records, which is arrest and traffic citations.
https://alachuacounty.us/Depts/Clerk/PublicRecords/Pages/PublicRecords.aspx
The Alachua County Property Appraiser has a great search engine with maps and pictures and details and sales history for every tax parcel in the county. (Look up your house for fun.)
https://www.acpafl.org/
The Alachua County Tax Collector will let you search who did (or did not) pay their property taxes for current and past years.
https://www.alachuacollector.com/
The Department of State in Tallahassee keeps track of corporations and LLCs and who directs who. Informative to search.
https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/search/
And there is the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections, where you can see who donates to all your favorite political candidates. Little difficult to navigate to find, but it is there.
https://www.votealachua.com/
These URLs allow anyone to become a VERY informed citizen, sitting at home in your basement surfing on Al Gore’s interwebs. All free and open to the public, you do not need to create an account with a password. Some sites, like the Federal Bankruptcy Court, require you to register an account.
After the above top five URLs, I realized they were not enough.
To find out current laws, nothing beats the Florida Statutes online:
https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes
To help interpret the statutes, the Attorney General has a page of Attorney General Opinions (AGOs) which are fascinating reading:
https://www.myfloridalegal.com/ag-opinions
Every politician and voter must know the Public Records and Public Sunshine Meetings laws, and nothing beats the Government in the Sunshine Manual (an absolute Must Read for EVERYONE I mean EVERYBODY, citizens and politicians and government employees):
https://www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/default/files/2023-05/2023GovernmentInTheSunshineManual.pdf
To research local laws, they are indexed at Municode:
https://library.municode.com/fl/alachua_county/codes/code_of_ordinances
Politicians who need to fill out financial disclosure forms can learn about them here:
https://ethics.state.fl.us/
Candidates for office need to know about regulations for campaign donations and expenditures and various campaign rules (like, F9or example, legal yard signs) and the Department of State has written an easy to read Candidates Handbook:
https://files.floridados.gov/media/707325/candidate-and-campaign-treasurer-handbook-2024-working.pdf
And, of course, if your favorite local candidate or politician does not read and follow the Financial Disclosure and/or Candidates Handbook and/or Government in the Sunshine Manual, an Ethics Complaint might be in order and you will need a Complaint Form (and some postage stamps, no email submission):
https://ethics.state.fl.us/Documents/Forms/Complaint%20Form.PDF?cp=2024312
🙂
Facts on government subsidies from Public Records, for those who are interested. The Celebration Pointe bankruptcy has some $100 to $200 million of debt involved, in loans from banks according to news articles.
Some people promote Public-Private Partnerships. In this case, the Public puts up the money, the Private corporations get the benefits. One way cash flow and always at the taxpayers’ expense.
Alachua County BOCC created a special taxing district “Celebration Pointe Community Development District No. 1” in 2012 Ordinance 2012-17. The semi-governmental district collects an extra 1 cent sales tax within the district, making it more expensive to patronize the place.
The CDD has issued three bonds to develop Celebration Pointe roads and such.
Series 2014 is for $33,730,000.
Series 2017 is for $30,245,000
Series 2021 is for $30,245,000.
Total bond debt $67,255,000 plus interest.
In 2014 Celebration Pointe received a $12,000,000 State Infrastructure Bank low interest loan through the Florida Department of Transportation to build the bridge over I-75 connecting to Butler Plaza.
In 2021 Alachua County gave Viking Inc. $30,000,000 to build a Sports Center. Viking is a construction company owned by Svein H. Dyrkolbotn, the developer of Celebration Pointe.
In 2021 the State Legislature gave CP $2,320,000 towards the Sports Center.
Millions more tax dollars have been requested for the World Masters Track Meet and other projects, like a Sports Hall of Fame.
The Free Market Capitalist Development of Celebration Pointe by a “successful” local developer has received to date at least $111,575,000 of taxpayer money subsidies yet it was such a misconceived idea it still went into bankruptcy because it cannot pay $100 to $200 million of bank loans and is seriously behind on paying its property taxes owed to Alachua County.
Without government money, Celebration Pointe probably would never have been built, as the economics do not add up. Thanks to all you Alachua County taxpayers who made it all possible. This is your development.
How could we forget the current topic? Follow and sing along with the Celebration Pointe bankruptcy in real time:
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/52716579/Celebration_Pointe_Holdings,_LLC