Business & Tech

BOTTLEROCK: Debt Balloons to $8.5 Million

Expo board votes to remain open to new investor proposals.



New investor proposals to take over the BottleRock Music Festival next year will be considered by the Napa Valley Exposition Board next month, according to a unanimous vote Tuesday.

Expo CEO Joe Anderson said the board voted 9-0 to allow until the next board meeting, Dec. 18, to take a simultaneous two-pronged approach for reviewing potential plans for next year's festival.

"A lot has to happen between now and then," Anderson said Wednesday.

The two tracks are: To remain open to an investor's proposal presented at Tuesday's board meeting; and also to issue an RFP, or request for proposals, for other potential investors.

Tuesday's proposal, from local investors GSF Partners, is to take over the festival and also pay back $8.5 million in debt to creditors from this year's event, Anderson said. GSF Partners is a group formed by Napa entrepreneurs David Graham, Jason Scoggins and Joe Fischer, Anderson said.

Anderson said GSF principals requested to be placed on Tuesday's board meeting agenda in order to present their proposal to the board and the public.

He said the board was interested in the GSF plan but could take no action since the current BottleRock owners, BR Festivals LLC, hold the asset rights and also have already placed a deposit with the Expo on next year's event.

"We're open to negotiation if they (GSF) can get an APA (asset purchase agreement)," Anderson said. "BottleRock (BR Festivals) is the only one in a position now to negotiate with GSF."

In addition, GSF would have to pay off BR Festival's current debt to the Expo of $310,938.

"It's very complicated and convoluted right now," Anderson added. "We can't move forward unless all those things happen -- it all has to be done simultaneously."

None of the GSF partners could be reached for comment on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if there were other investors who intend to bid on the project.

This year's inaugural BottleRock festival ran for five days in May at the Expo's fairgrounds just east of downtown Napa.


















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