LakePoint games continue

♦ New management expects to re-organize and emerge from bankruptcy within five months

The LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson is still a beehive of youth sports activity in spite of a Monday evening bankruptcy filing by LakePoint Land LLC.

“The recapitalization will strengthen the company’s financial picture so LakePoint can grow and flourish,” said Dan Berman with Glass Ratner Atlanta, who is leading the restructuring on behalf of LP Investments I, an affiliate of Rimrock Capital. Rimrock has been the primary funding body for the LakePoint Development over the last five years.

“Everybody had been expecting it,” said Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor of the Chapter 11 filing. “We’re optimistic about LakePoint. The North campus road is proceeding ahead and will be finished next year. We feel bad for the original investors, but the new management seems to know what they’re doing and they are committed to the master plan.”

Taylor said the bad thing about this type of venture is that the second people in are often the ones who

From A1 reap the benefits.

“There are a lot of things that went right at LakePoint,” Berman said. “It just didn’t grow fast enough. We would have liked to have seen it grow faster.” He said the facility has been adding venues each year, but the growth had not kept up with expenses. “This is the culmination of a restructuring plan between Rimrock, the primary capital source and lender, and the investors to essentially convert all of our debt to equity.”

The stabile financial footing is being designed to attract new investors to continue to grow LakePoint into one of the nation’s premier vacation destinations.

“The path being opened up for new capital is going to accelerate a lot of things around the campus and on the campus,” said Bob Zurcher, CFO and manager of the complex.

Berman said he expects the bankruptcy plan has already been agreed to by many of the key stakeholders and he expects LakePoint to emerge with a clean financial slate within five months.

Sporting activity will continue unimpeded by the court action throughout the summer.

LakePoint includes eight full-sized baseball fields that are covered completely with an artificial surface developed by Shaw, three combination lacrosse, soccer fields that are also covered with artificial surface, a large beach volleyball venue and wakeboard park. The Champions Center, a mammoth 170,000 squarefoot indoor pavilion with the capacity to play 12 basketball games at one time, along with numerous other events ranging from competition cheerleading to indoor track and field, makes LakePoint a yearround destination.

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.

All of the activity to date has taken place on the South campus below Ga. 293 in Emerson. Work to open up the North campus got underway within the last several months. A new road and bridge over a CSX rail line is under construction and expected to be ready at some point in 2019.

“The new capital plan will help open the door for those additional investments,” Zurcher said. More athletic fields are contemplated along with a variety of retail development.

“What we hope people do notice is LakePoint’s continued commitment to service and quality guest experiences, along with Rimrock’s commitment to LakePoint’s continued success.” Zurcher added.

Zurcher said that a deal with Duke Hospitality, the company which developed the Courtyard by Marriott in Rome, to develop several hotels on the property was never actually consummated and new management at LakePoint is in discussion with other hoteliers.

Berman said the prearranged filing should provide a level of confidence for potential investors in additional hotels, restaurants and other venues.

“We’re looking forward to that. We’re open for business and we’re excited about developing new relationships with additional partners,” Berman said.