FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Brightline sold its Fort Lauderdale parking garage for $18.5 million amid struggles to raise $100 million for operations and cover potential legal costs.<\/p>\n
According to CBS12 News partners at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel<\/a>, Brightline put its seven-story Fort Lauderdale parking garage next to the station up for sale in early December with a $20 million price tag. It purchased the garage in 2023 for $21 million.<\/p>\n S&P Global Ratings spoke of Brightline’s challenges, saying in its most recent note on Brightline\u2019s financial state<\/a> this month:<\/p>\n We think that switching riders from alternate modes, automotive in particular, is more challenging than originally forecast. Fares that have been drastically discounted to encourage new riders have proven particularly sticky, and we believe that projected growth in ticket revenue into 2026 is unlikely to materialize. Looking ahead, we now project lower growth in ticket revenue of 15% in our base case in 2026, leading us to expect a higher probability of default by January 2027 for [the railroad] as liquidity available would be insufficient to meet debt service obligations.<\/p>\n According to Redfin<\/a>, the 185,303-square-foot garage sold on Dec. 11 for $18.5 million \u2014 below the asking price, but still making a sizable dent in the passenger rail company\u2019s debt. The buyer was not listed.<\/p>\n See also: HOMETOWN HEROES: Jupiter students brew success with coffee sales funding school activities<\/a><\/p>\n The brochure for the parking lot from the real estate firm noted that Brightline seeks to lease back the garage for its customers\u2019 use over a 25-year period.<\/p>\n In addition to the garage sale, Brightline says it needs to borrow another $100 million and is asking its main lenders for approval to take on more debt. The money would help cover day-to-day operating costs and set aside cash in case the company has to pay out money from ongoing lawsuits, according to the Sun-Sentinel.<\/p>\n Brightline hasn\u2019t said exactly which legal cases could cost them, but there are two notable ones. One involves Florida East Coast Railway, which owns the rail corridor Brightline uses and claims Brightline broke an agreement while planning a new commuter rail line. That case is currently paused while arbitration talks continue. Another lawsuit was filed by a former train conductor who says he developed PTSD<\/a> after witnessing multiple fatal accidents involving Brightline trains.<\/p>\n The Sun-Sentinel says Brightline has also been upping its marketing game, creating partnerships with airlines, cruise lines, entertainment promoters, and launching holiday and seasonal discounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Brightline sold its Fort Lauderdale parking garage for $18.5 million amid struggles to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-98754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}