BRD Land & Investment and two affiliated entities have asked a North Carolina bankruptcy court to approve a liquidation plan that would wind down their real estate business and pay unsecured creditors an estimated 16 pence on the dollar. According to the disclosure statement filed on 21 April, the proposal covers a portfolio of land assets appraised at about $50.8 million and comes after the companies concluded that a restructuring was no longer practical. BankruptcyObserver says the Chapter 11 case was filed on 24 February in the Western District of North Carolina and remains active.

The filing portrays a business hit hard by a sharp deterioration in the residential land market. The company said demand from first-time homebuyers weakened to levels not seen since the financial crisis, forcing homebuilders to walk away from or renegotiate projects. That left BRD with 13 cancelled developments and seven more deemed uneconomic, wiping roughly $390 million from its expected pipeline revenue. At the same time, its secured lender sought accelerated payments tied to property sales, intensifying a cash crunch that pushed the group into Chapter 11.

Rather than attempt a turnaround, the debtors are seeking a court-supervised sale process. The plan calls for a liquidating agent to take control after confirmation and oversee property sales, contract assignments, claim objections and the broader wind-down. The real estate portfolio includes ten owned parcels, with the largest being Warden Station in Conway, South Carolina, valued at $26.8 million in the filing, alongside other sites in South Carolina and North Carolina. The Real Deal and Bisnow reported in March that BRD was marketing a much larger multistate portfolio spanning roughly 30 residential projects and eight commercial sites, with entitlements for more than 14,000 potential home lots.

The debtor’s own analysis says a Chapter 7 case would likely deliver only 1% to 3% for general unsecured creditors after secured debt, costs and administrative expenses, making the proposed Chapter 11 liquidation materially better. General unsecured claims are estimated at just over $108 million, including about $74 million in promissory notes owed to more than 100 lenders. The plan also provides for full payment of certain secured tax, priority and administrative claims, while equity holders would receive nothing unless all higher-ranking claims are satisfied. Under the Bankruptcy Code, Chapter 11 is designed to let a company either reorganise or, as here, use a court-approved plan to sell assets and distribute proceeds in an orderly way.

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Source: Noah Wire Services