One month after Celebration Pointe filed for bankruptcy, many businesses and residential areas on the property continue to thrive.
Tanya Sekelik, 47, and her daughter Ella, 19, browsed through what Celebration Pointe has to offer–from green spaces to sports complexes and movie theaters–on a Sunday afternoon. The mother-daughter pair said they go to the mall to eat at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille every time they’re in Gainesville together.
“We’re big Spurrier’s fans,” Tanya said. “We’re from Pennsylvania, and we’ve been coming here since last summer.”
She said neither of them had heard about the bankruptcy filing.
Spurrier’s management and employees were unable to comment on the bankruptcy of the mall due to a long waitlist and a backed-up kitchen.
In a statement, a spokesperson said Celebration Pointe filed for Chapter 11 in March as a result of economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement also revealed that attempts to restructure debt with stakeholders without filing for bankruptcy were unsuccessful.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy provides Celebration Pointe legal protection from creditors and lawsuits while it reorganizes its income and expenses.
“For the businesses at Celebration Pointe, this means they can expect to conduct their operations normally without any interruption to their services or interactions with customers,” said Angela Chan, the manager of marketing for Celebration Pointe, in an email.
Madison Silas, 25, and Christian Lawson, 27, sat at a table in the open-air plaza and colored with their daughter Indy, 2.
“We usually walk here and let her run,” Silas said. “It’s a nice, relaxing place. I’m sitting here and coloring with my kid on a nice day.”
Lawson said they chose to go to Celebration Pointe because it’s within walking distance of their apartment. He said the three of them moved to City Place at Celebration Pointe Apartments from Jacksonville last week.
“There’s nowhere else to go, and it’s super convenient,” he said. “Plus, we can drink and not drive.”
Silas said she found out about the filing from coworkers, adding that City Place did not tell them about the filing when they moved in. Lawson didn’t know about the filing until asked for a reaction from WUFT News.
Tim Becker, executive director for the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Real Estate Center, said in a Chapter 11 case the developer and the lenders are the most impacted.
“It’s a negotiation between lenders and borrowers,” Becker said. “Lenders can extend their loan, allow them to restructure and change the terms of the agreement. It’s not uncommon in the real estate business.”
He said the businesses in Celebration Pointe have a lease with the developers, and through those leases they’re required to pay the rent they negotiated with the landlord. The property of Celebration Pointe may have debt, but that doesn’t impact the individual businesses paying their rent.
“It all comes back to traffic,” he said. “As long as the economy in Gainesville is strong and people are shopping and enjoying the shops, Celebration Pointe won’t have to worry.”
He said malls everywhere have been struggling.
“Many malls have gone into bankruptcy to restructure so they can afford to make payments,” Becker said. “There’s no impact on the tenants or customers; they’re just ensuring that the revenue coming in is able to cover what they need.”
According to employees of Celebration Pointe, there’s been no changes to their jobs.
Bianca Cori, an assistant store manager at Tommy Hilfiger in the plaza, said she and her coworkers weren’t worried about the filing.
“We’re mostly making jokes about it,” Cori said. “It’s a retail slow point; it’s not going to affect us.” She said she worked at the retail store Forever 21 when it filed for bankruptcy, and nothing changed for her then, either. “It happens a bunch,” she said. “But I didn’t see it coming.”
Breah Penn, a manager for retailer Palmetto Moon, said she’s not worried about her job, and she’s also not surprised about the filing. Football season is our busiest,” Penn said. “And when school’s out, it’s also busy. There’s not been a change since the filing: Weekdays are slower, and weekends pick up.”
Mikhail Skapinski, an assistant manager at Fit2Run, an athletic store, said the opposite. “I’m not really surprised,” Skapinski said. “It’s super slow. The Oaks Mall is definitely busier.”
He said he thinks the Alachua County Sports and Events Center, located next to the mall and owned by Celebration Pointe, will bring more business to the plaza. He said he’s already noticed more customers at Fit2Run since it opened.
The Alachua County Sports and Events Center opened in 2023, five years after Celebration Pointe mall. Construction on other projects is expected to continue.
In an interview for Mainstreet Daily News, the attorney representing Celebration Pointe said developments in Celebration Pointe are not affected, including ongoing construction on apartment complexes.
In his experience, Becker said the length of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing depends on the willingness of each party to negotiate a restructuring and could take years.
In her email, Chan said employees had been briefed and assured of their job security. “Tenants and partners understandably have concerns when they hear the word 'bankruptcy,'” Chan said.
“We're addressing these concerns directly,” Chan said, “by ensuring that all parties know that our operations are continuing as usual, and we are working diligently to emerge from this process on even stronger footing.”
As for venues like Spurrier’s, the waitlist shows no sign of getting shorter.