LakePoint Sporting Community & Town Center® - How Key Land Deals Set Stage for Mixed-Use Project

Challenge

Assemble, finance and purchase numerous tracts of land along Interstate 75 north of Atlanta for a youth sports multiuse destination called LakePoint Sporting Community & Town Center®. If fully developed, the project, currently 1,270-plus acres but potentially 1,700-plus acres, will be a major retail hub, sports tourist destination, and job creator for north Georgia. Plans call for north and south campuses with baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer fields, a wake park, other indoor and outdoor sports facilities, additional family and youth sports recreation, plus numerous retail, entertainment and hospitality providers, and an east campus with major medical facilities. Purchase of the primary 1,200 acres closed in August 2011. A year later another 19 acres were sold to the developer and operator of the wake board park. In late December 2012, a critical 74-acre parcel was acquired to complete the assemblage of the south campus; a 14-acre parcel was sold to Bass Pro Shops for the development of a regional Bass Pro Shops store; and a $1 million/$10 million “minimum/maximum” equity offering was commenced to raise money for the project. LakePointe is a finalist in the annual Atlanta Business Chronicle Best in Real Estate Awards for 2012 in the mixed use category.

Approach

AGG attorneys represented the purchaser on all land purchase contracts; negotiated long-term ground leases for sports use parcels; performed title, survey and environmental due diligence; prepared the master declaration; closed acquisition financing; and negotiated equity investment structures and formation of acquisition and investment entities. Subsequent to the initial land assemblage closing, AGG attorneys have worked on the addition of other surrounding properties, the financing of horizontal infrastructure development, major retail anchor transactions, the designation of the project as one of the first “Tourism Attractions” under recent Georgia legislation promoting that type of development, and the first parcel sale to a sports user on Aug. 23, 2012 for development of a unique 20-acre cable-driven wake board park.

Result

The work completed by AGG to date sets the stage for years of planned development, sales, leasing and financing activities related to different portions of the project, which will be valued at more than $1 billion at build out.  LakePoint Sporting Community & Town Center® is expected to eventually attract more than 4 million visitors a year.