Alachua County warns Viking of pending default of Sports and Events Center operator contract
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alachua County has sent a Notice of Default to Viking Companies, owned by Svein Dyrkolbotn, warning that a subsidiary’s contract to operate the County’s Sports and Events Center may be terminated if the company fails to pay over $500,000 in CDD assessments and provide missing financial information within 30 days.
CP Event Center Operations, a subsidiary of Viking Companies, was selected as the operator of Alachua County’s Sports and Events Center in 2021 and is responsible for monthly assessments to the Celebration Pointe Community Development District No. 1 (CDD). Under the contract between Alachua County and CP Event Center Operations, the operator is required to give first priority of payment to these special assessments, but the 2024 CDD assessment of $312,409.96 has been past due since September 30, 2024. Fiscal Year 2025 assessments, which were $207,613.77 as of May 31, 2025, are also unpaid; one-twelfth of the amount is required to be paid monthly. The letter from Alachua County states that this failure to pay is a “material breach of its obligations” under the contract.
Other provisions of the contract require CP Event Center Operations to keep “full and accurate books of account[s] and records including, without limitation, a sales journal, general ledger and all bank account statements,” along with written control policies, point-of-sale records, monthly revenue and expense statements, cash flow staements, and monthly balance sheets.
The County hired Carr Riggs & Ingram to audit CP Event Center Operations for the year ending December 31, 2023, but the auditor reported that the audit could not be performed “due to a lack of or inadequate documentation and information on part of the Operator.” The County notes that this has not yet been remedied.
The letter states that CP Event Center Operations has “failed to develop and/or adhere to policies and controls to ensure proper accountability of Gross Revenues… [and] failed to maintain accounting and bookkeeping records for the operations of the Sports Center using generally accepted accounting principles and practices.”
CP Event Center Operations has 30 days to cure these deficiencies before being considered in default of the contract; the County’s letter stated that it “intends to avail itself of any and all remedies” available in the contract, including termination and damages.
At today’s Alachua County Commission meeting, County Manager Michele Lieberman said the County Commission will receive an update at a July meeting.
Svein can ask Ollinger to transfer $500K from Shively’s account to Svein’s account, and then Svein cuts a check to the County for the CDD assessments. Problem solved.
It will be interesting to see what happens with all of this…
If you consider how ‘interesting’ it will be to see how the county tries to work this into their budget? Somehow….I believe the taxpayers won’t be too shocked to find out where any shortfalls might come from.
Floppers gonna flop. Predictable.
“A subsidiary’s contract to operate the County’s Sports and Events Center may be terminated.” That’s the County’s response? GRU would turn off your power for far less than Viking owes.
A competent attorney should be able to come up with a more suitable legal strategy than that. I’d start by seizing some passports.
The County hired Carr Riggs & Ingram to audit CP Event Center Operations for the year ending December 31, 2023, but the auditor reported that the audit could not be performed “due to a lack of or inadequate documentation and information on part of the Operator.”
One can’t help but wonder if the recent legal happenings has led to the County taking a more proactive stance with regard to Viking.
Funny you should mention GRU. Viking, thru RAD Sports, their for profit subcontractor, is supposed to pay all bills ON TIME. The GRU bill is in the name of the county, but mailed to RAD. Several times they have paid the bill late, in violation of their contract, but who cares?. If the GRU bill had been in their name, like any other private customer they would have been charged thousand of dollars in late fees. They did not. Why? GRU does not charge governments late fees. By having the bill in the county’s name, bad cash flow Viking and RAD Sports saved thousands. Just another way Vikings special “sweetheart deal” with the county made them thousands. Sick
In her lawsuit, Patricia Shively called Celebration Pointe a “Ponzi scheme.” Her words, not mine.
As far as I can tell, EVERY business partner and bank has given/loaned Svein D. hundreds of millions and NONE of it has been repaid. At least $416 Million. He appears to be a 100% consistent con man. The county gave him $31 million to design and build a Sports Center and he built a cheap steel barn that would have cost $20 million if it had gone out to competitive bid.
The county commission has been told for YEARS that Svein is doing funny bookkeeping at the Sports Center and the county manager and county commission has looked the other way, pretending, even after his 2024 bankruptcy filing, “well, he may have ripped off EVERY other business partner he ever had, but Alachua County trusts him to do the bookkeeping for the Sports Center and we are SURE he will do honest bookkeeping for the Sports Center, the one exception to his normal money losing business practices.”
The county manager is a close buddy with Svein, and was part of the plot to build the Sports Center, whose sole purpose was to host the World Masters, whose bookkeeping is being done by Svein and (surprise) is not done yet. Maybe late July, maybe September.
When a grand jury places criminal fraud charges against Svein, in my opinion, the county manager needs to be indicted as a co-conspiritor in the Celebration Pointe Ponzi scheme. BOCC needs to fire her immediately.
how do you know that the county manager and Svein are buddies?
TDS: Like Svein says to his creditors, “you’ll just have to trust me.” 🙂
The sprots center was bid out and Scherer Construction built the facility.
Ahh, the misinformation campaign starts. County hired Viking and handed them $31 million ($38 million with interest) of tax money to design and build the sports center ANY WAY they wanted with NO county pre approval. Viking hired Scherer to build the building. The county did not bid it out or hire Scherer. If the county had bid it out I predict it would have cost a lot less. But “time was of the essence” to build it in time to host the World Masters, the reason the sports center was built.
Scherer got the building permit before the county got the land. The ink on the plans was still wet. The building is NOT built to county standards, but to lower (cheaper) standards required of private buildings. A business owner is allowed to build a cheap energy inefficient building and pay huge monthly utility bills. The government will pay more for a higher quality building, knowing the lower operating costs will pay off in the lifetime of the building.
Who allowed this? I have my guesses. Call the RICO grand jury and stay tuned.
OMG what next?
I hope for the employees and businesses there that CP can get new owners and whatever to sustain itself. They built an apt complex but how many employees can afford to live there, what’s the vacancy rate?
How often is the rec center getting events year round and what’s its revenue stream like?
If it’s true more people are moving here, let’s hope competent heads prevail in the future.
wonder what the monthly gru bill is to cool the place.
j: It is a poorly insulated industrial steel warehouse construction. It was permitted as a private construction, not to the higher energy efficiency that is supposed to apply to county owned buildings. The county manager allowed this to happen. In my opinion, she is a co-conspirator in this con game. It is an energy hog no matter who operates it. Depending on time of year, the monthly GRU bill is S30,000 to $50,000. It will never be profitable to run.
thank you. So if/when the county takes it over we perhaps get to pay even more to make it energy efficient since the county will own the building.
Well, not quite. For example, the gym has no windows or skylights. Electric lights are blazing if two people are playing pickleball. But renting a few pickleball courts each afternoon will never pay the $1000 per day GRU bill.
The 3 acre roof does not collect rainwater to a cistern, so the county pays thousands per month for GRU water on their irrigation meter.
If it had been built to county standards, which it should have been, the roof would be 3 acres of solar panels to power the place. Apparently the roof is not strong enough to support solar panels, cuz Viking built it cheap to maximize profits. The county does own the building, but making it energy efficient may not be possible. It is an energy hog.
Alachua County Commissioner’s entered into this sports complex contract with Svein after the development had already essentially failed. They threw tax payer money on a dead dog just to cover their own butts for an international old people’s athletic event commitment.
The county knew exactly what they were entering in to. Pride is deadly. As much disdain as I have for the developer this particular boondoggle (sports complex) is all on the county!
If you allow a Viking Raider into your county treasury, don’t be surprised when he walks off with it. It is what they do.
I’m picturing Mr. Hand saying to the County Commission and County Manager: “What are you people? On dope?!?”
The entire concept should have been discarded from the beginning.
Sounds like the World Masters championships didn’t generate the throngs of high-paying fans that were so disingenuously predicted. Who cudathunkit?
On Aug. 8, 2023, a rosy over optimistic presentation was given to the BOCC by the promoters of the WMA. They predicted 4000 athletes and 10,000 visitors, with 60% from Europe. Reality: 3700 athletes, half from the USA. They predicted 17,000+ room nights to collect tourist bed tax on. Reality, gonna be a lot lower. I predict the economics of the WMA will be dismal.
Someone (the county taxpayers?) is paying IFAS to do one of their bogus “economic impact” studies to try to justify the WMAs, like they did for the Newberry slaughterhouse, showing a 7x multiplier and every $1 spent goes around the economy so many times it creates 80 full time jobs and benefits the county by $100 million. Bunk. Pure bunk. Pay a hotel and most of the money zips out of state to the corporate owner. Shop at Walmart and most of the money goes straight to Bentonville and then to China. It does not stay here and rotate around the economy.
Anyone not wearing rose colored glasses would know this glorified gym was going to be…in Trump’s words…a disaster.
IMO, this whole expected failure of the County Commission needs to be criminally investigated by the state. It was never viable in the first place and reeks of criminal cronyism. Even the local Democrat politicians aren’t that stupid, or are they?
The Shively lawsuit calls this whole thing “fraud” and a “Ponzi scheme.” Allegations until proven, her words not mine. BUT. . .
These are words used to describe a RICO outfit. What does it take to get this in front of a grand jury?
Ha,ha,ha,ha…they move the complex from NE to C.P. because some missing potatoes chips and hot wheels from Walmart…
fancy w. Collars are the real thieves
QUIT BEING A BOY AND PAY YOUR DAMN BILLS
GAH BLESS
Wasn’t the initial money granted for the athletic center to be built on Waldo Road? Get a grant to the East Side and give it to the rich. Just like the convention center was to be built by the airport. How is that doing? Alachua County is the Robin Hood for the rich.
We needs to build the chuckie cheese chestnut facility on the east side so that the peeps can gather and do their thing rather than shooting up McPherson park. Now we gets the old folks facility which operating by the bankrupt dude from Norway. When we gonna get gru back ???
CP was a concept, I suppose.
The issue I have is…did we need it? And is it productive? It sounds like a lot of people poured money into it…hoping it would be productive. I certainly don’t think public funds should have been used for it in any way.
I rarely go there. And rarely find a reason to go. But that’s fine. Others may love it. Honestly, I might prefer going down town…and I never do that..except for one place I like and that is rare.
What I am seeing is: A lot of people had a big idea. And I wonder if we were right for the idea.
Right now: Only the lawyers are winning.
I wish I was making this up, but I am not. Public Records.
Svein Dyrkolbotn, the developer of Celebration Pointe, is from Europe, where most cities have car-free pedestrian only shopping zones downtown. They are wonderful places. Attempts to duplicate them in the USA just fall flat. Celebration Pointe, from its design in Svein’s head, is a upscale place for rich white folks with huge amounts of disposable income. The problem is there are not enough of this demographic in Alachua County to make CP profitable. The flawed financial concept that is Celebration Pointe was doomed to bankruptcy before it began.
Celebration Pointe has a set of Design Guidelines and a Design Development Committee which is essentially micromanaged by absolute dictator Svein. The guidelines require all plans to be submitted and approved by the DDC before being submitted to the County for a building permit. Svein has placed his authority above that of the government.
Tenants have to protect the “Celebration Pointe brand”, codified in a Brand Manual “including an emphasis on quality services in a community that promotes healthy living, cosmopolitan cultural influences, and advanced technology as part of a progressive, sophisticated, and sustainable lifestyle” ”In keeping with the high quality of Celebration Pointe.”
CP has Extensive Use Restrictions. No industrial use, no warehousing, no manufacturing, no mobile home sales, no junkyard, no auto repair, no stockyard, no animal boarding (veterinarians are permitted, but they cannot keep any animals overnight), no agriculture, no bowling alley, no “second hand” store, EXCEPT stores which sell LEGITIMATE antiques, or any use “not compatible with the operation of a First Class mixed use development.” Sounds kinda snobbish, doncha think? And for this you get to pay an extra 1% sales tax. Enjoy.
Svein is the final arbitrator of what a High Quality business is. (Too bad “bankrupt tax deadbeat developers” are not on the prohibited list.)
It’s almost like putting a huge shopping mall in the middle of some chicken-farming town in the middle of rural Oklahoma. There just aren’t ever going to ever be enough potential customers to support it, and it’s not even close.
Anyone else wondering why Alan hasn’t put up a defense for the County yet?
Me. I guess Alan is getting tired of his standard shtick which does not work anymore.
“But it is not your Alachua County tax money, it is tourist development 5% bed tax that pays for it. We hose out of towners sucker enough to visit Alachua County. They pay for it, so quit complaining.”
It is still TAX money being spent by the county commission. TDT money is a bigger slush fund than even Covid funds.