Oakland club’s debts revealed
Court documents shed light on PAA’s financial struggles
Recent court filings are providing a more detailed look at the bankrupt Pittsburgh Athletic Association’s financial situation, showing the iconic Oakland social club drowning in a sea of unpaid bills.
The organization, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 30, listed assets of about $9.32 million and liabilities of about $7.89 million.
The documents filed late last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh listed more than 100 creditors, ranging from federal, state and city tax collectors and employee pension funds, to utility companies, insurance firms, law firms, food vendors and a laundry service.
Liabilities also include first and second mortgages on the organization’s stately Fifth Avenue clubhouse totaling $4.2 million. Allegheny Valley Bank, which holds the first mortgage on the property, began foreclosure actions against the association in April 2016.
The club owes money to a host of local companies, according to the documents. Some of them include Jo-Mar Provisions, a meat vendor in the Strip District ($63,121); U.S. Foods in Greensburg ($59,374); the commercial machinery moving company Steffan Industries in McKeesport ($34,640); Eckman & Danovitz Attorneys at Law, Downtown ($25,510); Schindler Elevator, Robinson ($23,399) produce vendor Monteverde’s, Carnegie ($20,788); Affordable Linens, Beechview ($7,354); Allegheny Refrigeration, North Side ($5,356); Mancini’s Bakery, McKees Rocks ($3,825); Witt Pest Management, Polish Hill ($1,340) and The Bagel Factory,
East End ($545).
The association had received an extension from the bankruptcy judge to file the latest documents because the club’s books were in such disarray.
“Due to a lack of coherent and consistent record keeping practices …books and records are incomplete and disorganized,” the association said in a filing May 31 requesting the extension.
The documents also show that within the last 12 months prior to the bankruptcy filing, the former president of the association, Thomas Trimbur, was repaid a total of $25,527 for loans to the club.
He received payments in August 2016 and March 2017, according to the documents.
Mr. Trimbur, a board member whose term as president expired earlier this year, also is listed among current creditors as still being owed roughly $17,000, plus about $1,400 owed to his insurance agency in McMurray.
The association’s clubhouse is its biggest asset, valued at $8 million, according to the documents. The building includes dining and banquet facilities, an indoor pool, basketball and squash courts and a 16lane bowling alley.
Another $1.32 million in assets include the contents of the building — such as furniture, linens, china and fitness equipment — plus artwork appraised at $762,000 and cash and investments of about $180,000.
The club has been pinning its hopes for a reorganization on finding a buyer or development partner for its roughly 124,000-squarefoot clubhouse, opened in 1911 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“The plan is to go to local and national real estate developers to come up with proposals for us to stay in the building, probably in a smaller footprint,” current president James Sheehan said when the association filed for bankruptcy in May.
The bidding process, which ended July 26, generated “significant interest,” according to the club’s bankruptcy attorney, Jordan Blask of Tucker Arensberg, Downtown.
“We will be in the process of vetting those proposals and responding in the next couple of days,” he said Tuesday.
The process will remain confidential until a bidder is chosen and the club seeks approval for the deal in bankruptcy court, Mr. Blask said. The club has been in a downward spiral in recent years amid changing lifestyles, declining membership, dwindling revenue and the high costs of maintaining an aging facility.
The organization has about 260 members, according to Mr. Blask, down from around 750 just two years ago.
The club had been counting on a previously undisclosed amount of lease payments from a hotel being built on adjacent club property to ensure its long-term future and avoid bankruptcy.
According to bankruptcy court filings, the 99year lease agreement provides the association with $200,000 a year during construction, increasing to $290,000 when the hotel opens.
To be called The Oaklander Hotel, the 167-room property will be one of the Marriott brand’s “Autograph Collection” hotels. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018.