Paul Brinkmann: Hard Rock headquarters leaving area.
Hard Rock International should be done moving its headquarters out of Orlando by the end of April, company officials confirmed, a little ahead of schedule.
The company, which includes casinos, hotels and 160 cafes in more than 70 countries, has been based in Orlando since the Seminole Tribe bought it in 2007. But the tribe and Seminole Gaming are both based in Hollywood, north of Miami.
The company has given few details about the move. A spokeswoman declined Friday to say how many of its 200 employees in the Orlando headquarters are making the move to South Florida. But Hard Rock provided a little more information recently.
“Packages were made available to existing team members in the form of base pay increases, relocation assistance, promotions into larger roles within the company, as well as professional outplacement for spouses and/or partners of team members who move and wish to seek employment in the new location,” the statement said.
The company believes combining the staffs of all three companies will provide “a more collaborative brand environment,” the statement said.
Hard Rock says employees who aren’t moving are allowed to work through the closing and receive their annual bonus, severance pay and professional outplacement services.
The move from Orlando might have been sealed when Hamish Dodds, CEO for 13 years, resigned in 2016. Since Dodds left, the company has been led by Jim Allen, who is based at the casino in South Florida.
The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in London in 1971, in a former Rolls Royce dealership, after two Americans decided they wanted a traditional burger joint in England. Its location in Orlando is designed to look partly like the Coliseum in Rome.
The casino part of the business is dominating the company. It has 23 hotels and 11 casinos. The company says its most successful properties are in Tampa and Hollywood, both owned and operated by The Seminole Tribe of Florida. Other locations include Bali, Chicago, Cancun, Ibiza, Las Vegas, Macau and San Diego.
The company is also prepping to open a major expansion for the South Florida resort. It includes a new hotel shaped like a giant guitar. The hotel will increase the resort’s rooms to 1,273 and add five new restaurants, a buffet and nightclub at its complex on U.S. 441 north of Stirling Road, the Seminoles said.
Fifth Amendment
An Orlando businessman who pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination last year, Ishrat Rehmetullah, is back in court trying to settle his debts in a long-running personal bankruptcy case.
Creditors in the case alleged in 2015 that Rehmetullah had attempted to flee the country, and had failed to report a collection of gold coins, diamonds and real estate he owns in Pakistan; those allegations were detailed in a filing by a court-appointed trustee assigned to the case, Richard Webber.
Rehmetullah tried to offer $100,000 in a settlement, but the creditors said that wasn’t enough and demanded to know where his assets had gone.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Cynthia Jackson ordered Rehmetullah to update his assets in November, but that still had not happened as of Friday.
HD Supply sale
Piedmont Office Realty Trust has purchased downtown Orlando’s HD Supply building at 501 W. Church St., according to Orange County property records.
The five-story building was opened in 2004 near Amway Center. The sale closed Feb. 22, and the sale price as recorded Tuesday is $28 million, according to the deed.
It has been owned for years by a St. Louis real estate and development company, Pavilion Apartments, which bought it for $24.6 million in 2004.
Webster University took a full floor in the building, totaling 37,000 square feet, in 2015, the same year that Piedmont bought the SunTrust Tower downtown.
Based in the Atlanta area, Piedmont (NYSE: PDM) says it is one of the nation’s largest publicly-traded owners of Class A office properties, with property in eight major Eastern U.S. office markets. It has a $5 billion portfolio, about 17 million square feet.
The SunTrust Center, Orlando’s tallest office tower, is 35 stories tall, or 441 feet, built in 1988 and originally named Sun Bank Center. Piedmont also owns the two CNL buildings that flank City Hall downtown, CNL Center I, and two office buildings in Lake Mary, 400 and 500 TownPark.