Spirit Built A Brand-New $250 Million Corporate Campus — Bankruptcy Values It At Just $88 Million

What has become of the nearly brand-new 11-acre $250 million Spirit Airlines corporate campus? Defunct Spirit Airlines has a ‘stalking horse’ bidder for its 11-acre corporate campus near the Fort Lauderdale airport, an affiliate of Boston investment firm Hill City Capital. Theyll pay $88 million cash provided no one bids more, and if they don’t get it for that price they’ll receive a fee. “Spirit Central” in Dania Beach was only just opened in April 2024. At the time, to me, it symbolized everything wrong with Spirit. The carrier’s costs had ballooned over 40% since the pandemic. They were a low fare airline but no longer ultra-low cost, having lost their focus. Frontier Airlines would never! Spirit Central is officially open in sunny Dania Beach, FL! 🌴 Our new corporate campus spans 11 acres with top-notch facilities for our amazing Spirit Team Members. From a cutting-edge training facility to dedicated housing, it’s all here. The best part is it’s super close to… pic.twitter.com/db6LaKvede — Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) April 18, 2024 According to the bankruptcy docket, Six stories, approximately 180,000 square feet, designed for more than 1,000 corporate employees Training center, approximately 108,000 square feet; eight full-flight-simulator bays, classrooms and cabin-training equipment “Fueling Station” approximately 13,000 square feet with café, commercial kitchen, coffee bar, lounges and fitness center “The Landing” 200 two-bedroom corporate apartments, housing up to 400 visiting employees, plus pool, gym and meeting space 998 garage parking spaces plus 125 surface spaces Development site marketed as capable of supporting another roughly 180,000-square-foot building The flight simulators are not included in this sale. The residential building sits on a long-term ground lease rather than owned land. Buyers are permitted to bid for the whole campus or combinations of its components. Spirit originally announced an investment of up to $250 million. The $88 million bid is only about 35% of the advertised project cost. This is a specialized, distressed mixed-use property, but that’s still extraordinary for a campus barely two years old. Under the court-approved bidding procedures: The stalking horse bidder receives a 3% breakup fee or $2.64 million if another buyer wins. It may also receive up to $500,000 of documented expenses. A competing bid covering substantially the same assets must exceed the $88 million offer by the bid protections plus an additional 2% of the stalking horse bidder’s price. Assuming the full $500,000 reimbursement, the opening threshold is therefore $92.9 million. Competing bidders must provide a 10% deposit, have completed due diligence and cannot condition their offer on obtaining financing. Spirit may select the “highest or otherwise best” offer, allowing it to consider certainty, timing, assumed liabilities and closing risk. The sale is expected to be approved at a September 16, 2026, 11 a.m. hearing. Hill City previously joined Apollo and J.F. Lehman in the take-private acquisition of Atlas Air Worldwide. Broward County considered bidding as much as $100 million for the headquarters, garage and training building as an alternative to constructing a new government center but ironically that faced zoning complications. Topics on this page