The CEO of Braves Development Corp. cleared the air on Tuesday regarding the future of the mixed-use development outside Atlanta’s Truist Park: it’s not for sale.
CEO Mike Plant said on Tuesday that comments made by Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei earlier this month did not mean the 2.5-million-square-foot complex dubbed The Battery was on the market, according to Bisnow.
Liberty Media owns the Atlanta Braves baseball club, Truist Park, and the Battery through its subsidiary Braves Group.
Maffei said in an answer to an analyst’s question during an earnings call that “we might or might not try and liquidate some of the Battery portfolio,” but added that “given what’s going on in real estate… I’m not sure that [a sale] is likely in the near term.”
Some people took that to mean the complex was on the market, but Plant said that’s not the case.
“I think [Maffei] gave a generic type of response that led to an assumption that we had to or were going to sell some of our real estate assets, which is absolutely just not true,” he said.
The Braves Group is currently building out the $200 million second phase of the Battery, which is funded through a three-to-one mix of debt to equity. The complex and the park as a whole was funded in part with $360 million in Cobb County bonds.
Braves revenue was down 95 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, as no baseball games were played during that period. Revenue from developments including the Battery dropped 40 percent year-over-year to $6 million.
Plant said there was “zero” possibility that Liberty Media or the Braves would be unable to meet its debt obligations. [Bisnow] — Dennis Lynch