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Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav‘s effort to buy a summer camp just north of New York City appears to have failed, with a private equity firm swooping in to outbid him for the property at a bankruptcy auction, according to court records filed Tuesday.
Zaslav was the stalking horse bidder for Mohawk Day Camp and Mohawk Country Day School, the preschool that it also operates, with his Grandview Ventures bidding $68 million for the property as a personal investment. His kids, now adults, all attended the camp when they were kids, implying a personal connection. A source says that Zaslav raised his bid at auction, with plans to keep Mohawk operating as a camp.
“This is a personal family investment that reflects our lifelong belief that summer camp can be a wonderful part of a child’s growth, and Mohawk’s history as a successful camp experience for so many kids, including our own,” a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery said after Zaslav initially submitted his stalking horse bid.
Unfortunately, FitzWalter Capital Partners emerged as the winning bidder in the auction, acquiring the camp’s assets for an eyewatering $120,750,000, per filings. It is not entirely clear what FitzWalter plans to do with Mohawk, having it continue operating as is, or repurposing the land and facilities for something else.
Mohawk consists of nearly 39 acres of land a $250,000 playground and a performing arts center, among other equipment and infrastructure. Unlike most of the other summer camps involved in the high-profile bankruptcy, Mohawk was located in the heart of Westchester County, just north of New York City, making it an attractive real estate investment, with both residential and commercial possibilities.
The bankruptcy itself is something out of a made-for-TV movie, with a pair of brothers rolling up dozens of summer camps and accumulating debt along the way. A Chapter 11 filing for their holding company and all of the impacted camps followed earlier this year, right as kids were to be sent off for the summer.
Now a judge will need to sign off on the winning bids next week.
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