Alachua County will take over operational control of the Alachua County Sports and Event Center this fall after sending a default letter to the current operator, Viking Companies, just two years after opening. 

The Board of County Commissioner (BOCC) voted unanimously at a Tuesday meeting to end its agreement with Viking Companies, which owns Celebration Pointe where the sports and event center is located. The decision comes after the county sent a default letter on June 6 and gave Celebration Pointe 30 days to remedy three violations of its contract.  

Svein Dyrkolbotn, principal owner of Viking Companies, sent a reply on June 26, but County Manager Michele Lieberman said the reply failed to address the violations. Instead, Dyrkolbotn gave options to move forward, including a 12-month timeframe to renegotiate the contract and an option to transfer management to Alachua County by the end of 2025.  

In the letter, Dyrkolbotn said Viking Companies has invested heavily in the center and taken on a significant financial burden for the county.  

He said the process of opening the facility was rocky, with multiple unexpected interruptions, but Dyrkolbotn highlighted the recent successes, including $28.7 million in overall economic impact during an 18-month period and the recent World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships.  

“While there is clear evidence that this public-private partnership is working, the cost-benefit is highly imbalanced,” Dyrkolbotn said. “As the County’s private enterprise partner, we have shouldered significant financial expense with the overwhelming benefit going to the public.” 

Part of the contract violations, which included lack of financial reporting and failing to pay annual dues to the community development district, were brought up to the BOCC in October 2024. 

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby presented findings from an audit of the operations. He said the county would work with Viking Companies to remedy the issues, which dealt with financial reporting, but said county funds were not at risk.  

He said that Alachua County and Viking Companies anticipated that the facility would only break even after five years, and Crosby said after a slow start, the pace was picking up. He said the partnership, overall, was working. 

“We are just concluding the first full year of operations, but we believed that there was enough concern to at least look into the different aspects of the contract, talk with the operator, get information and find out where we need to go and how we’re going,” Crosby said about the audit. 

Crosby said that Viking Companies is responsible for filling in any funding gaps in the operating costs until reaching profitability. Backup documents said Viking Companies had provided that backstop funding and hadn’t asked for assistance. 

But those financial reporting issues returned when the county issued its notice of default in June, along with the issue of outstanding payments to the community development district. 

Alachua County owns the actual building and the land directly underneath, but Viking Companies owns the surrounding Celebration Pointe, including parcels directly adjacent to the building and the parking garage across the street.  

Alachua County and Viking Companies entered a joint private-public partnership to build the facility and received state funding to assist. Crosby said in October 2024 that the project started as an unsolicited proposal, with Viking Companies coming to the county.  

The collaboration has garnered praise from elected officials at the state and county levels. 

However, issues at Viking Companies started to appear last year when three of the companies that make up Celebration Pointe, all managed by Viking Companies, filed for bankruptcy. The company said at the time that the bankruptcy proceedings would last around nine months and were necessary to deal with lenders who weren’t cooperating with a debt restructuring plan.  

Alachua County hired an outside legal firm to protect its interests in the case, and the bankruptcy proceedings continue. Since then, lenders have started to file lawsuits because of outstanding debt.  

Partially fueled by the lawsuits, Patricia Shively, who invested around $100 million into Celebration Pointe, sued Viking Companies and her personal investment adviser for pulling her into an investment con. Shively was the personal backing for more than $300 million of Viking Companies and Celebration Pointe’s debt. 

Alachua County’s default letter comes on the heels of these lawsuits.  

On Tuesday, Lieberman said county staff recommended transitioning operations to Alachua County effective at the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1. Her recommendation to the BOCC asked the commissioners to decide that the reply letter doesn’t dispute or explain how Viking Companies would fix the contract violations.  

She also asked the commissioners to authorize her to begin the transition process if the contract breaches aren’t fixed by 5 p.m. on Friday, July 11, the end of the 30 days required by contract.  

Lieberman said the county will return with options for managing the facility in August. Those options would include finding a third-party manager or keeping the operations within a county department.  

Even if the county wants to outsource, Lieberman said it must manage the facility for at least a year while staff prepare a bidding process and contract with a new management company.  

Commissioner Mary Alford asked if the county would continue to collect finance documents to fill the gaps left by Viking Companies. Lieberman said the financial numbers have not been what was expected at times or missing information. She said the county will get all the documents that Viking Companies has when it takes over operations.  

Lieberman said the county has a good idea of the cost to operate the facility, and she said the near-term focus will be continued service to campers and events already planned.  

Commissioner Anna Prizzia said he was concerned since the county will now take on this unanticipated cost. She asked if the county’s annual budget, presented at the last meeting, would need to shift, including the proposed millage rate.  

Lieberman said she’s comfortable assuming operational control without changing the budget plan, noting that the county has reserves for unanticipated issues.  

According to documents from Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), the Alachua County Sports and Event Center pays anywhere from $16,000 to $25,000 in monthly utility bills. 

During public comment, Tamara Robbins said the county will need to find solutions for several problems, including parking. She noted that the county has none of its own parking on the site. The majority of parking is done at the parking garage owned by Viking Companies, which while free might start charging.

She said the county picked a bad location from the start.  

“It should have been on the east side or somewhere more neutral, and now it’s over there stuck in the middle of a development that probably is going to be required to liquidate.” 

Prizzia directed the question to Lieberman, who said parking payment is outside of the county’s control. She said Viking Companies could start charging and had planned to charge at some point. Lieberman said the county would try to negotiate on parking. 

Prizzia and Alford also asked about the land directly surrounding the sports and event center. Prizzia said she wants the building to look presentable and not impacted by the weedy areas around it. Alford added that she’d like the development near the facility to be presentable.  

Lieberman said the developments are part of the overall masterplan, giving the county some control.