Celebration Pointe’s largest investor, Patricia Shively, sued her financial adviser Will Olinger, Svein Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies on Tuesday.  

According to the lawsuit, Celebration Pointe, where thousands of visitors enjoy movies, shopping and dining, was built because of a con that used Shively, 74, as a mark for her money.  

Shively invested over $99 million in the development, and the lawsuit alleges that, unknown to her, Olinger and Dyrkolbotn used Shively as a personal guarantee against $319 million in other loans.  

Without her millions, the lawsuit claims, Celebration Pointe would have floundered years ago. 

“Put simply, Dyrkolbotn and Olinger used [Shively] as the ATM for Dyrkolbotn’s troubled project,” the lawsuit said. “No one at Koss Olinger stopped this abuse, Celebration Pointe never recovered, and the house of cards fell.”   

Mainstreet received a statement issued on behalf of Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies that said multiple parties have been involved in the very complex project. The statement said Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies have always acted in good faith and transparently. 

“We are reviewing the allegations in the complaint which are strenuously disputed and remain confident that the legal process will bring clarity to the facts,” the statement said. “The project has always been a community-based asset, and we remain committed to the project and to working diligently to maximize value for stakeholders, creditors and the community. 

Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies has not yet filed a response to Shively’s lawsuit. Koss Olinger has not responded to a request for comment, nor has it filed a legal reply.

According to the lawsuit, Olinger needed Celebration Pointe to succeed because he had already convinced other clients to invest in the development. Olinger leads the Gainesville-based financial firm Koss Olinger, and Shively also sued the other shareholders in the company, claiming a dereliction of their fiduciary duties.  

“Olinger’s reputation rested on the project as well; Olinger had steered a who’s who of University of Florida and Gainesville, Florida society into investing in Celebration Pointe,” the lawsuit claims.  

The lawsuit lists four examples: Lon Kruger, former UF basketball coach; David Nelson, president of UF Health; the Shey family, prominent UF donors; and Jim McClave, UF’s Outstanding Alumnus in 2018.  

Shively’s lawsuit comes after being included in 11 other lawsuits from groups or persons who lent money to Celebration Pointe and Viking Companies—loans that listed Shively as the guarantee of payment. 

Most recently, on April 30, Mainstreet Community Bank of Florida filed two separate suits for $13.9 million in assets, and on May 20, Gainesville’s Ken and Linda McGurn also filed suit after loaning $8.4 million to help with the Alachua County Sports and Event Center. 

Celebration Pointe declares bankruptcy 

In March 2024, three companies around Celebration Pointe filed for bankruptcy.  

The bankruptcy documents showed over $217 million in debts along with nearly a million in unpaid taxes, but an attorney for the companies said it was simply a matter of rearranging the debt, with some lenders not wanting to play ball.   

The Celebration Pointe attorney estimated the bankruptcy process would end within 10 months. The attorney, Scott Shuker, has not responded to Mainstreet’s subsequent attempts to contact him.  

In June, Mainstreet reported that Alachua County hired an outside legal firm to keep track of the bankruptcy proceedings, noting that the case was not a typical bankruptcy because of all the interlocking corporations. An Alachua County attorney said the county wanted to make sure it wasn’t left holding the bag through inaction.   

Alachua County entered into a private-public partnership with Viking Companies to build and manage the Alachua County Sports and Event Center at Celebration Pointe. Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies also had a hand in allowing Alachua County to purchase the West End Golf Course.   

Dyrkolbotn has been celebrated by state lawmakers and local county leaders for his development at Celebration Pointe.   

But recent lawsuits accuse Dyrkolbotn and Viking Companies of fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties, unjust enrichment and negligent misrepresentation.   

James and Neil Euliano sued in 2024 for these charges and others. Iceberg Capital Partners III also sued for similar breaches. Iceberg claimed that Dyrkolbotn used funds for a development to renovate his personal home.   

The lawsuits have come from investors in Celebration Pointe and other Viking Companies developments—many including Shively. 

Shively claims a decade-long con  

In her lawsuit, Shively claims her financial adviser, Olinger, continued to place her investments in risky ventures with Viking Companies and used her wealth as backing for other loans, overexposing her when the enterprises started to fail.   

The lawsuit said Olinger told Shively around 2023 that she was in too deep to get out of the project and kept recommending more investments.  

Shively said she went to Olinger in 2008 and asked for investments with limited risk and no chance of litigation for her children or grandchildren. She had just been divorced from Bill Shively, currently the executive chairman of Tower Hill Insurance, and according to the lawsuit, Shively never handled financial matters. She relied on Olinger because of past connections with the firm and family.   

But the lawsuit said Olinger never created a portfolio of stocks, bonds and investments that would have matched Shively’s needs. 

“Instead, for over a decade, while he was supposed to be protecting her financial security, Olinger steered [Shively] almost exclusively into risky and ultimately catastrophic real estate investments in Celebration Pointe to benefit his friends and other clients at her expense,” the lawsuit said. 

Olinger convinced Shively to invest $1.92 million in Dyrkolbotn’s Campus View South apartment project, and the loans were repaid with interest. Then, the lawsuit said, he convinced her to go further.   

According to the lawsuit, Olinger never revealed the personal relationship he had with Dyrkolbotn. The lawsuit claims Dyrkolbotn was a client of Olinger. Their children go to school together, and both served on the Oak Hall School Board of Trustees.  

Dyrkolbotn is still listed on Oak Hall’s Board of Trustees, but Olinger is not. Tim Roark, a partner at Koss Olinger who is being sued by Shively, is also listed as a trustee. 

The lawsuit claims that Olinger worked to ingrain himself into the family and would frequently send friendly texts to Shively, including platonic “I love you” texts.  

Jamie Shively Martin, Shively’s daughter, is also listed as an Oak Hall trustee. 

Starting in 2014, Shively made 80 separate contributions (styled as loans) to the Celebration Pointe development, totaling just over $99 million. The contributions were all below $4 million but came with frequency.   

Shively also personally guaranteed more than $300 million in other loans—some to projects that she had no fiscal interest in. The lawsuit said many lenders would have dropped out without Shively’s guarantee. 

The lawsuit said Olinger convinced Shively to mortgage two of her children’s homes, which she had bought for them. When Shively’s adult children began asking questions, the lawsuit claims Olinger promised answers and documents but never delivered.  

The lawsuit also claims that other, smaller investors in Celebration Pointe received some returns, but Shively never did. 

The lawsuit places most of the blame on Olinger, saying he purposely conned Shively. But the lawsuit says Dyrkolbotn also knew what was going on. 

“Dyrkolbotn instigated, assisted, and profited from Olinger’s scheme,” the lawsuit said. “Dyrkolbotn continuously prodded Olinger to provide more and more of [Shively’s] money, and more and more loans that she guaranteed, to benefit Celebration Pointe.” 

The lawsuit also lists many employees of Koss Olinger, claiming they knew Olinger was investing against Shively’s stated desires. 

“Through their positions and responsibilities at Koss Olinger, the Control Defendants were in a position to detect, report, prevent or stop the misconduct detailed above,” the lawsuit said. 

The lawsuit names William “Bill” Olinger, Kirk Klein, Brian Watson, Timothy Roark, Robert Eberhard and Eduardo Mordujovich as the control defendants. 

McGurn lawsuit 

Ken McGurn told Mainstreet that the lawsuit filed with his wife, Linda McGurn, came after nearly every other investor had already sued. He said it was time to get in line like the rest of the companies and individuals involved.  

The McGurns developed much of downtown Gainesville and are major UF donors, with the Florida Natural History Museum’s exhibition hall named in their honor. Florida Trend lists them as “living legends” in its list of 500 influential leaders in 2024. 

McGurn said they weren’t too involved in the bankruptcy proceedings since they hadn’t loaned money to one of the companies that had filed for bankruptcy. Instead, McGurn said they provided $8.4 million to help Viking Companies fulfill its side of the partnership for the Alachua County Sports and Event Center at Celebration Pointe. 

He said the bankruptcy plan seems to have failed entirely, prompting all the lawsuits, and he estimated that the legal proceedings will take at least two years to settle. He noted that millions of dollars in lawyer fees will accrue in the meantime.  

McGurn said they’ve tried to work with the people involved, offering to stretch payments out or lower interest rates. He said the interest on their loan is nothing compared to the 15-20% of some involved parties.  

He said the investment seemed pretty secure because of the personal guarantee from Shively. He said he wasn’t aware of the depth of Viking Companies debt until the bankruptcy filings, nor the number of personal guarantees until Shively’s lawsuit. 

He said Celebration Pointe seems busy, with Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille doing well and apartment getting developed. He said the development should be OK if it can get over the debtor’s issues. But some assets might change hands, McGurn said. 

“A bankruptcy judge has a lot of latitude, and she can do a lot of things to make it work, and eventually it’ll be back to normal,” McGurn said.