Rock Hill, Tepper tentatively agree to $20 million settlement in failed Panthers project
The city of Rock Hill and a company created by billionaire Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper have agreed to a $20 million settlement over the failed team headquarters in South Carolina, court documents show.
The settlement, if approved, requires Rock Hill and GT Real Estate to drop lawsuits against each other, according to a proposed court order. If the lawsuits are dropped, questions may go unanswered about who is at fault in the failed project.
GT Real Estate and Rock Hill had previously blamed each other for the project’s failure, documents show.
A spokesman for GT Real Estate and Mark White, one of the lawyers for the city of Rock Hill, declined comment to The Herald Monday morning about the proposed settlement.
The settlement, which would pay the city the $20 million it invested in the deal, must be approved by a Delaware bankruptcy judge, according to the agreement filed by GT Real Estate in court records.
A confirmation hearing on the bankruptcy is scheduled for Wednesday. Rock Hill must vote to approve the bankruptcy plan as part of the settlement, documents show.
GT Real Estate is the company created by Tepper to build the site. Work at the site was halted earlier this year and GT Real Estate went into bankruptcy in June in a dispute over money.
The proposed settlement does not include any agreement by York County, which claims to be owed more than $80 million, documents show. York County and Tepper companies are involved in lawsuits that remain pending.
Contractors owed at least $60 million have generally agreed to the bankruptcy plan already.
The failed site
The Panthers headquarters and practice site was hailed by the team, Rock Hill, and York County as a huge economic development project for the area.
Top political leaders in South Carolina rushed an incentive package through in 2019 and 2020 to make the deal. Rock Hill gave $20 million, and York County gave $21 million. The Panthers received tax incentives.
The project included a new Interstate 77 interchange in Rock Hill next to the site that cost tens of millions of dollars. That interchange is still being built.
The original plan called for the team to move its corporate offices to Rock Hill, with adjacent business development around the site.
But after construction started in 2020, the Tepper companies and Rock Hill began to argue over the city’s role in issuing at least $135 million in bonds to pay for part of the project.
By March of 2020, Tepper halted construction. In June, GT Real Estate declared bankruptcy.
Why the settlement is important
Before the proposed settlement was reached, Rock Hill and GT Real Estate were at odds over whether the city would receive any money from its initial $20 million investment in the project.
GT claimed when it stopped construction and declared bankruptcy that Rock Hill did not issue at least $135 million in bonds for the project. The city claimed it was not required to issue the bonds and accused the Tepper company of attempting to scale back the project after failure by GT to secure anchor hospital and hotel tenants for adjoining economic development at the site.
When Rock Hill and York County each filed lawsuits earlier against GT Real Estate, the firm claimed it owed the county and city nothing in bankruptcy.
Now, as part of the proposed settlement deal, Rock Hill would get its initial $20 million investment of taxpayer dollars back.
Until the settlement was reached, Rock Hill and York County were opposed to any bankruptcy deal.
The Rock Hill settlement leaves York County, with an $81 million voting stake in Wednesday’s bankruptcy plan vote, as the only major creditor opposed to the plan. As of Monday, York County is not guaranteed any money as part of the plan.
What happens now?
- Delaware bankruptcy court Judge Karen Owens must approve the settlement before it becomes official.
- A confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday in Delaware bankruptcy court.
- Creditors -- businesses who say they are owed money from the failed project -- are expected to vote Wednesday on GT Real Estate’s bankruptcy proposal.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
This story was originally published November 14, 2022 at 8:38 AM with the headline "Rock Hill, Tepper tentatively agree to $20 million settlement in failed Panthers project."
