ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 13, 1997 TAG: 9701130072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The developers of Colonial Downs plan to sell $31.5 million in stock to finance Virginia's first parimutuel racetrack, slated to open this summer in New Kent County.
The stock sale will help finance the $62 million project's cost and pay off loans made by Colonial Downs' three main investors.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the three - Colonial Downs chairman Jeffrey Jacobs and partners Arnold Stansley and James Leadbetter - will be repaid more than $3.7 million from the stock offering.
They also will remain major shareholders in the venture. The SEC filing said the 3.9 million shares to be sold represent about 55 percent of the venture.
The filing said new investors would pay $9 a share.
So far, about $7 million has been spent on construction of the track and to open two off-track betting parlors.
Jacobs, Stansley and Leadbetter have not received salaries since work on the track started. But the SEC filing said they are to get at least $435,000 in management and consulting fees.
``They're not taking any money out other than the loans they made... and management fees,'' said James Weinberg, one of the track's attorneys.
Track officials also plan to borrow $18.5 million from a bank and another $3 million from Jacobs, who came aboard as an investor last year and replaced Stansley at the helm of Colonial Downs.
Under terms of the offering, Jacobs would own 25.2 percent of the stock but will control 52 percent of the voting power if he chooses to turn his $3 million loan into more company stock.
Jacobs, 42, is an Ohio real estate developer whose family owns the Cleveland Indians.
Stansley, who like Leadbetter lives in Toledo, Ohio, led the group that won the track license in 1994.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines KEYWORDS: HORSE RACINGby CNB