Panthers Owners companies named in Rock Hill HQ project debacle
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper had a bankruptcy hearing for his real estate company GT Real Estate Holdings and no one got everything they wanted. The faces of attorneys representing York County, Rock Hill and contractors were less glum than the counsel for GTRE after Judge Karen Owens issued her decision Thursday afternoon. Judge Owens wouldn’t approve a financing plan for Tepper’s company GTRE that would have reorganized and paid off creditors through a loan from another one of Tepper’s companies DT Sports.
Attorneys for York County, Rock Hill and contractor Mascaro/Barton Malow (MBM) continued to hammer away at the interconnected nature of Tepper’s business empire over the two-day hearing. Their point is that other Tepper entities, such as the Carolina Panthers, should also be on the hook for money owed by GTRE.
Court records and testimony showed GTRE was mostly backed by other Tepper entities, with $163.5 million coming from the Carolina Panthers, made out as checks, and another $62.5 million from DT Sports. Rock Hill claims it’s owed $20 million and York County claims $21 million.
The agreement of $225 million in bonds between Rock Hill and GTRE for the Panthers to move its practice facility and team headquarters to South Carolina fell through and the project collapsed.
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