CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) — An organization whose Chesterfield County sports complex was closed and sold at auction has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
SportsQuest LLC made the filing this week in federal bankruptcy court. Court papers show SportsQuest listed $7.35 million in liabilities and $1,030 in assets.
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SportsQuest Managing Director Dudley Duncan had taken over for SportsQuest founder Steve Burton in March, when a new seven-member board was installed. Duncan called the financial picture “an impossible scenario.”
“We considered that (the filing) was the right thing to do all along; from the time that the board was constituted, that’s what drove our mentality — to try to do the right thing and offset some of the business practices that had been occurring,” Duncan said.
The SportsQuest High Performance Center had operated in a rental facility until late February. It closed in a dispute with its landlord.
Burton had envisioned the athletic complex as a place where elite athletes from around the world would come to train. But only lighted athletic fields and concession and bathroom facilities have been built so far.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/QHbsfa) reports the new property owners have indicated a desire to continue the project. Shaw Industries bought SportsQuest’s property for nearly $5 million in a foreclosure auction in May was later renamed it the River City SportsPlex.
Chesterfield Department of Parks and Recreation Director Mike Golden said the county is working well with Shaw Industries, which is honoring the terms of the 20-year lease with the county. Chesterfield invested $4.3 million to lease the use of nine multipurpose synthetic fields for 20 years and for a senior center and gymnasium.
According to the lease agreement, the senior center and gym are to be built by the end of September 2013. Golden said the issue needs to be resolved.
Burton said it remains important to him that the county continues to be rewarded for its support of the project, and “it will be important that the business community throw their support behind the new ownership.”
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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com
