Churchill Downs has announced that the company has signed an agreement to divest 115.7 acres of land near Florida’s Calder Casino for $291m, or approximately $2.5m per acre.
This, says the company, has been entered into alongside Link Logistics, an owner of logistics real estate assets, established in 2019 by Blackstone.
The closing of the sale of the property is subject to the satisfaction of various closing conditions, with the company anticipating this to occur in the first half of 2022.
CDI says that it is “planning to use certain proceeds of the sale to purchase or invest in replacement property that qualifies as an internal revenue code §1031 transaction”.
Following the closing of this transaction, CDI will retain ownership of approximately 54 acres of the current 170-acre parcel of land on which the company’s wholly-owned Calder Casino sits. The company may sell 15-20 acres of land along NW 27th Avenue in the Miami Gardens area in the future for retail development.
Last month, Churchill Downs revealed that it had scored a series of increases through the year’s third quarter, helped along by its gaming and live and historical racing segments as TwinSpires offered up declines.
Net gaming revenue through the year’s third quarter increased 16.3 per cent to $393m (2020: £337.8m), as net income recorded at 42.1 per cent uptick to $61.4m (2020: $43.2m), and adjusted EBITDA rose 28 per cent from $121.9m to $156.1m.
Breaking down those headline figures further, the company’s gaming segment took the lion’s share with revenue of $185.6m, representing a 27.9 per cent rise from $133.7m.
This was followed up last week when the Indiana Gaming Commission announced that the company’s application for a casino owner’s licence in Vigo County had been successful.
This will see the group, whose application was submitted via its CDITH subsidiary, develop the Queen of Terre Haute Casino Resort, after beating a trio of competing proposals from Hard Rock, Full House Resorts, and Premier Gaming Group and Terre Haute Entertainment.
