What has become of the nearly brand-new 11-acre $250 million Spirit Airlines corporate campus?
Defunct Spirit Airlines has a ‘stalking horse’ bidder for its 11-acre corporate campus near the Fort Lauderdale airport, an affiliate of Boston investment firm Hill City Capital. Theyll pay $88 million cash provided no one bids more, and if they don’t get it for that price they’ll receive a fee.
“Spirit Central” in Dania Beach was only just opened in April 2024. At the time, to me, it symbolized everything wrong with Spirit. The carrier’s costs had ballooned over 40% since the pandemic. They were a low fare airline but no longer ultra-low cost, having lost their focus. Frontier Airlines would never!
Spirit Central is officially open in sunny Dania Beach, FL! 🌴
Our new corporate campus spans 11 acres with top-notch facilities for our amazing Spirit Team Members. From a cutting-edge training facility to dedicated housing, it’s all here. The best part is it’s super close to… pic.twitter.com/db6LaKvede
— Spirit Airlines (@SpiritAirlines) April 18, 2024
According to the bankruptcy docket,
- Six stories, approximately 180,000 square feet, designed for more than 1,000 corporate employees
- Training center, approximately 108,000 square feet; eight full-flight-simulator bays, classrooms and cabin-training equipment
- “Fueling Station” approximately 13,000 square feet with café, commercial kitchen, coffee bar, lounges and fitness center
- “The Landing”
200 two-bedroom corporate apartments, housing up to 400 visiting employees, plus pool, gym and meeting space
- 998 garage parking spaces plus 125 surface spaces
- Development site marketed as capable of supporting another roughly 180,000-square-foot building
The flight simulators are not included in this sale. The residential building sits on a long-term ground lease rather than owned land. Buyers are permitted to bid for the whole campus or combinations of its components.
Spirit originally announced an investment of up to $250 million. The $88 million bid is only about 35% of the advertised project cost. This is a specialized, distressed mixed-use property, but that’s still extraordinary for a campus barely two years old.
Under the court-approved bidding procedures:
- The stalking horse bidder receives a 3% breakup fee or $2.64 million if another buyer wins.
- It may also receive up to $500,000 of documented expenses.
- A competing bid covering substantially the same assets must exceed the $88 million offer by the bid protections plus an additional 2% of the stalking horse bidder’s price.
- Assuming the full $500,000 reimbursement, the opening threshold is therefore $92.9 million.
- Competing bidders must provide a 10% deposit, have completed due diligence and cannot condition their offer on obtaining financing.
- Spirit may select the “highest or otherwise best” offer, allowing it to consider certainty, timing, assumed liabilities and closing risk.
The sale is expected to be approved at a September 16, 2026, 11 a.m. hearing. Hill City previously joined Apollo and J.F. Lehman in the take-private acquisition of Atlas Air Worldwide.
Broward County considered bidding as much as $100 million for the headquarters, garage and training building as an alternative to constructing a new government center but ironically that faced zoning complications.
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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
- 998 garage parking spaces plus 125 surface spaces
‘But the County faced zoning complications’… oh, the irony…
Government needs luxury building. Right
How much? D’oh. But of course these Florida morons don’t believe in climate change ! As it happens the Spirit address at 1731 Radiant Drive is all of 4 meters above sea level, destined to be waterlogged within 5-10 years.
@Harry Hv — Don’t worry, ‘red’ states like Florida are counting on ‘blue’ states to bail them out, after the next hurricane renders them uninsurable.
We’re lucky that this ‘super’ El Niño is supposed to keep the Atlantic calm, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any storms this season, just less likely.
Has anyone else been considering where not to travel to due to this? Probably gonna make a few places less desirable, especially by the peak (January 2027). Eh, never mind, don’t think about…
@1990 You show time and time again that you are a total idiot. That last hurricane that blew through Florida in which the bridge that connected Captiva to western Florida was destroyed was rebuilt in about four months. Contrast that to the state of Maryland that hasn’t laid down an inch of bridge to replace the Key Bridge. You really should just not talk on subjects you are ignorant of.
@1990
Florida is no different than California. Just substitute wild fires for hurricanes and you have the same situation with asking for a bailout from the federal government.
@ George Romey
Be careful who you call an idiot as your comments reflect a total lack of knowledge of what you speak. You demonstrate you own ignorance in the comparison of the Captiva bridge with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The Captiva bridge was destroyed by an Act of God; there is no issue of liability to pursue here. This is certainly not the case with the Key Bridge where is substantial liability stemming from the actions of the shipping company. Second, the Captiva bridge is a small, 2-lane concrete structure spanning a small waterway. Road connections are local. The Key Bridge spans a major navigable commercial waterway supporting one the largest ports in America. The Key Bridge span is part of the interstate system (meaning the U.S. DOT/FHWA) is involved with the Maryland Department of Transportation in every stage of the rebuild. The demolition and design processes to rebuild the Key Bridge are infinitely more complex; so much so that your comparison is laughable.
@Planner — Thank you. It’s unfortunate that some folks would rather throw shade on a national tragedy just to score cheap political points instead of recognizing the massive, collective infrastructure challenges we face.
@George Romey — Glad to see my earlier comments touched a nerve. My original point still stands; rushing out a quick asphalt patch on a small causeway after a storm doesn’t change the macroeconomics of climate risk, surging insurance premiums, and long-term federal bailout reliance. (And for the record, I’ve been to Sanibel and Captiva; I’m genuinely pleased they’ve recovered since Ian, but let’s not pretend a barrier island road fix equals a complex deep-water port or a major interstate highway crossing over it).
@Steve — Huge difference; this particular federal administration isn’t about to hand California the same blank-check bailout coverage that it would to Florida or other ‘red’ states. Be real.
@Harry Hv
You clowns have been spreading the same climate misinformation and hysteria for decades. This land will still be in the same shape in 50 years and you will again ignore how wrong you were.
If anyone still needs the reminder, based on his comment history on here and other travel blogs, @Walter Barry is literally a pro-Putin, Russian disinformation agent. *smh*
@1990. And you have proof that Walter Berry is a Russian Disinformation Agent (spy)?
Dziękuję
The management of Spirit overspending is par for the course. That is why they couldn’t keep from going bankrupt. The building will sell for what others think it is worth.