Subscribe
Community
ACPT sold to D.C. company
Private firm is new owner
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
John Wright, head trainer and co-owner of ABC Wellness & Fitness Center, spots Naria Powell as she lifts weight during a training session at the Waldorf facility Monday. Powell's first training session was on Saturday. She said that she wants to get into better shape in the new year. Wright co-owns the fitness center with his wife, Tammy.
|
E-Mail This Article
The sale of American Community Properties Trust, Charles County's largest developer, was finalized late last month, its new owner announced this week.
ACPT's plans and priorities will not change, according to its CEO.
Federal Capital Partners, based in Washington, D.C., bought the company from ACPT shareholders for $43.6 million on Dec. 30, according to an FCP press release. The sale, which converted the formerly publicly traded company into a private firm, includes real estate assets with an estimated value of $320 million, according to the release.
The sale, announced preliminarily in October, was approved by a two-thirds majority of shareholders for $7.75 per share.
ACPT and its predecessor developed the St. Charles community in Waldorf beginning in 1968. The community, built according to a master plan, now includes 12,500 apartments, townhouses and single-family homes in eight neighborhoods, and 230,000 square feet of commercial space. More than 9,000 acres of land comprise the development, including 4,000 acres of now-vacant land with county approval for 11,000 dwellings and 5 million square feet of commercial space, according to ACPT CEO Steve Griessel.
ACPT also developed but no longer owns the St. Charles Towne Center mall in Waldorf.
With an estimated population of 40,000, the St. Charles development houses approximately two of every seven county residents on 2 percent of the county's land.
Switching to private ownership will allow ACPT greater freedom of action and cut its costs, Griessel said in an interview Tuesday.
"Firstly, we are able to reduce our costs significantly because of the direct costs of being public. Of course, that helps. Secondly, it gives us a lot more flexibility to be able to move quicker, not being in the public eye," he said. "Thirdly, Federal Capital Partners, being a large private equity group, a lot of private capital, gives us a lot more firepower to follow through on our policy."
Oversight by FCP will replace scrutiny by a board of directors, but the private equity firm's leaders share ACPT's philosophy and do not seek to run the company directly, he said.
"They've always said they're going to support the management team. I'm still CEO of the company. The entire management team is intact; the vendors are intact; the customers are intact. No question, they have a lot of input into our strategy, but they've bought into our strategy," Griessel said.
None of ACPT's approximately 100 local workers are being fired, and the company hopes to create new jobs with its "green city" initiative, announced in late November, a plan to reduce St. Charles' environmental impact through the use of wind power, energy efficient home construction and other means. Expansions are also planned, and the development should double in size in the next two decades, he said.
FCP's managing director for land, Alan Shearer, could not be reached for comment.
