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Suburbs / Daily Southtown / Southtown News
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Winning bid emerges for Balmoral Park
Trainers exercise horses early in the morning at the Balmoral Park racetrack on Oct. 15, 2015
(Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
By Mike Nolan
Daily Southtown
May 3, 2016, 8:45 AM
A wealthy commercial real estate owner and developer with interests in video gambling has apparently emerged as the victor in a photo-finish bidding battle for the shuttered Balmoral Park harness racing track.
Rick E. Heidner's Balmoral Holdings on Friday offered $1.8 million for the 200-acre property, 26435 S. Dixie Highway, Crete, and the park's assets, according to a court filing Monday. The park's owner, Balmoral Racing Club, will ask the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing its case to approve the sale at a hearing Tuesday.
Through various firms, Heidner owns and manages some 2 million square feet of commercial space, including retail centers locally in Oak Lawn, Palos Heights and Tinley Park. He's also an owner of Gold Rush Gaming, a licensed video gambling terminal operator with machines at more than 280 locations in the Chicago area and downstate Illinois, according to the company's website.
Heidner is also the developer of planned Ricky Rockets gas stations in Midlothian and Kankakee.
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A commercial real estate owner has bid $1.8 million for Balmoral Park, which held its final harness races in December. (John Smierciak / Daily Southtown)
Balmoral Holdings' bid surpassed one of $1.6 million submitted to the park's owners, the Johnson family, last week by Horse Shows in the Sun Inc., a New York-based company that produces horse-jumping competitions in New York as well as Arizona, California, Florida and Virginia. Some of the events draw horses and riders from around the world, according to media reports.
Horse Shows, or HITS Inc., submitted its bid Wednesday, while Heidner's offer came in Friday and a $300,000 deposit was wired Monday to the track's current owners, according to court filings. Previously, Balmoral Holdings had indicated it could not match or beat the HITS offer, according to Monday's filing. Balmoral Racing Club said in that filing it hopes to close the sale to Heidner's firm by May 13.
On Monday, Tom Struzzieri, HITS' president and chief executive, said he was disappointed that his company had apparently lost out, and wished Heidner's firm "the best."
"We were excited about the opportunity," he said. "It (Balmoral) had all the makings of being a place that would have been very special."
Struzzieri said he had been told that a Ricky Rockets truck stop would be built on part of the Balmoral property, should the sale be completed. Heidner did not return a message Monday seeking comment on the pending purchase.
In Midlothian, a Ricky Rockets Fuel Center is part of Heidner's planned redevelopment of a 16-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Cicero Avenue and 147th Street, the site of a former car dealership. He told Midlothian officials last year the project would cost in the neighborhood of $15 million, with a 14,000-square-foot fuel station that would also have diesel islands as well as a car wash.
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A commercial real estate owner has offered $1.8 million for the shuttered Balmoral Park in Crete. (John Smierciak / Daily Southtown)
Last week, an online auction for Balmoral's assets such as vehicles, memorabilia and kitchen and bar equipment, was held, but that auction's outcome remains up in the air. Balmoral Racing Club said that, collectively, bids totaling $770,000 were made for the items, which include Balmoral's finish line marker and a 1954 Buick Roadmaster convertible starter/pace car.
While all of that property would be part of the sale to Balmoral Holdings, Balmoral Racing Club said in its Monday court filing that should the sale to Heidner collapse for some reason, it would proceed with the sale of those other assets.
A separate auction of Balmoral's real estate was to have been held early next month. In a court filing, Balmoral said there was little interest in the real estate if the purchase didn't also include vehicles and equipment related to the park's operation.
Balmoral's owners, who also operated Maywood Park in Melrose Park, filed for bankruptcy in December 2014, shortly after a federal appeals court ordered them to pay nearly $79 million to casinos in Aurora, Elgin and Joliet. The filing was meant to stay that judgment and give the owners breathing room to reorganize, although they are also appealing the decision.
Maywood closed last fall, while Balmoral held its final races at the end of last year, after an extended sale process and extensive marketing efforts failed to produce a bidder acceptable to the debtors who would keep Balmoral running.
mnolan@tribpub.com
