Judge approves sale of Hard Rock Park

A spokesperson for the FPI MB Entertainment LLC group says the judge ordered the sale of Hard Rock Park to the group Tuesday afternoon. The sale will close by Thursday evening, and they are hoping to open by Memorial Day, officials said.

News13 spoke to the Trustee handling the liquidation of the park, Fred Giuliano, who said FPI wants to keep the Hard Rock Park theme and name. The Hard Rock International group has attempted to de-brand the park, but has been unable to do so at this point, according to court documents filed yesterday.

There were three other buyers at Tuesday's sale approval hearing according to Giuliano. He was able to identify two of the groups as Coastal Entertainment, LLC and Berry, LLC. All three groups got a later start in the case, whereas the FPI group has shown interest from the very beginning, Giuliano said.

FPI put down a non-refundable $2.3 million down payment, and will purchase the park for a total of $25 million. The park currently has over $300 million in debt, and is valued at $400 million.

"These times are a little bit different right now with the credit markets they are. For one, there's just not a lot of buyers out there with the ability to fund large acquisitions. And number two, that park based on what it did last year would not have the ability to service debt of $300 million," Giuliano explained.

A notice of abandonment was filed a few weeks ago, and that's what pushed the buyers to get something done more quickly, because it would have taken a longer time to get the park up and running, Giuliano said.

"Under that process, anybody that wanted to open by Memorial Day wouldn't have been able to do it. So that would hurt their value, that would have hurt their ability to get open by Memorial Day, so the fact that we filed a notice of abandonment, it pushed everybody to say we better do it now, or else this thing's just going to languish out there, we're going to miss the season."

FPI MB Entertainment, LLC public relations officials expected the sale to happen more quickly, but the objection held off the sale until later into Tuesday afternoon.

Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce President, Brad Dean says they are pleased with the sale could mean for the future of Myrtle Beach.

“If they are able close the deal in the time allotted and reopen the park for summer 2009, it would brighten the outlook for our local tourism economy. The prospect of the park reopening in 2009 is encouraging because of the new jobs it could create and the boost it could give the local market," Dean said.

President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, Hugh Owens, says he's pleased with interest.

"It bodes well with getting an operator in place for this spring or next; there's been a great deal of interest," Owens said. About ten to twelve companies have been considering buying the park over the last couple of months, but not all of them made a bid Owens adds. "There was a lot of interest in the park in terms of how it was built."

Horry County Chairperson, Liz Gilland, says over the past few weeks she’s met with several companies interested in the park. In a conversation with the FPI MB Entertainment group, Gilland says they shared ideas about the park. The group also asked about potential incentives from the state government to help tackle the debt.

Count on News13 to keep you updated as this story continues to develop.