Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper’s real estate company has proposed to pay more than $82 million to creditors over an abandoned practice facility project in Rock Hill under a new plan proposed, the Associated Press reported. The plan would require approval from courts and creditors. The development of the Panthers’ state-of-the-art $800 million practice facility fell apart after disputes between Tepper and the City of Rock Hill and York County. GT Real Estate Holdings (GTRE), a Delaware limited liability company, announced it has filed a comprehensive plan of reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Under the terms of the plan, GTRE would resolve claims by paying $60.5 million in cash funded into a settlement trust for the benefit of contractors, subcontractors and general unsecured creditors, $21.1 million to York County and $20 million or more to the City of Rock Hill. DT Sports Holding, LLC, a Tepper entity, previously funded $20 million in debtor-in-possession financing. Tepper’s real estate company, GTRE, filled for chapter 11 on June 2. York County announced a few days later that it was suing Tepper for at least $21 million. Among Tepper’s companies named in the York County lawsuit are DT Sports Holding, LLC, Appaloosa Management LP and Tepper Sports Holding, Inc. The complaint said Tepper and his companies took $21 million from a special penny sales tax intended to expand a road in York County and used the money for what the county’s lawyers called a “failed vanity project.” Tepper is one of the NFL’s richest owners. He invested more than $175 million into the half-built practice facility, which is located about 25 miles south of the team’s current downtown stadium and headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., before construction shut down.
