JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A coalition led by a group of dolphin experts, with financial backing from a Clay County couple, is now getting a chance to formally bid on Marineland Dolphin Adventure at a bankruptcy auction.
Marineland’s owner, The Dolphin Company, filed for bankruptcy in March. Over the summer, Marineland and some of the company’s other Florida parks were listed for sale. An auction held last month resulted in a winning bid of $7.1 million from a Texas-based developer, Delightful Developments LLC. An asset purchase agreement filed with the court as part of that bidding process indicated the attraction’s animals, which include 17 dolphins, would not be part of the sale, and would be relocated.
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At an Oct. 27 hearing to potentially approve Marineland’s sale to Delightful Developments, a Delaware bankruptcy judge opted to postpone a decision on Marineland’s fate, saying that it wasn’t until she started reviewing letters opposing the sale that she learned the park was still operational, with dolphins and other animals living there.
One of those objections to the sale came from dolphin expert Jack Kassewitz. He was one of the leaders of a coalition that argued it had been “shut out” of the bankruptcy auction, saying it had been told it could bid, until it was told two days later it could not. The group, formally titled #1 Apex Association LLC, was prepared to offer $4 million for the attraction and keep it operational. Barbara and Jon Rubel, the Green Cove Springs couple providing the financial backing, were also planning to provide $1.5 million in start-up capital to keep the park running through the slower winter months.
Court documents filed last week indicated that attorneys for The Dolphin Company had been in talks with #1 Apex Association about a bid, but even after two extensions, no formal bid had been received from the group.
On Monday morning, at a hearing called to continue the process of finalizing the sale, attorneys for the owners said they had been in talks with the attorney for #1 Apex Association, and that on Nov. 6, they did submit a qualified bid, along with all of the required documentation. The group’s bid was now valued at approximately $6.5 million, and with the cost savings from not having to shut the park down, the owners viewed it on par, if not slightly ahead, of the offers from developers.
Though the attorney for the owners said they were “hesitant” to disrupt the sale process, the best path forward was to reopen the auction and proceed with additional bidding from #1 Apex Association and Delightful Development LLC, along with the Hutson Companies, a northeast Florida developer that submitted an initial bid for Marineland, but was outbid at the October auction. The auction was set to happen Monday afternoon.
Monday morning’s hearing also led to an update on the potential sale of three dolphins currently at Marineland. Capri and Soleil, along with their mother Sandy, arrived at Marineland over the summer from Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach. Gulf World, also owned by The Dolphin Company, shut down earlier this year due to multiple dolphin deaths. The company had an offer from Theater of the Sea in the Florida Keys to purchase Capri and Soleil for $500,000, a deal that was then expanded to include Sandy. Kassewitz and other members of the coalition had filed objections to the sale with the court. Monday morning, attorneys said those objections had been withdrawn.
The potential sale to the winner of Monday’s auction is set to be finalized at a hearing on Wednesday morning. The proposed sale of the three dolphins is also set to be addressed at that time.