SSJ -Direct Real Estate Management - Whitestar Advisors

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Contract 16PBGC-21-C-0023, WhiteStar Advisors, LLC (WhiteStar) expires on February 29, 2024. The subject contract is a sole source contract to manage and liquidate the remaining direct real estate properties received from a terminated and trusted plan. As of the date of this docuemnt, there is one property left on the contract and the vendor is actively looking for buyer.

As of February 14, 2024, there is one remaining property that has not been sold and one LLC not dissolved. Therefore, CID has a current need to add two option periods for this contract. Without these option periods, this property will risk a break in services provided by our vendor including the oversight and day-to-day management of the property.

The unsold property was previously owned by Gulf Publishing Company, however since the bankruptcy in April 2020, the property has been vacant and been on the market for approximately 3 years. In June 2023, Whitestar listed the property on an auction site but received no bidder. After the auction, the listing agent continues to market the property for sale. Despite continued efforts to engage the three previously interested parties from the auction, none have expressed serious intentions to move forward.

However, in January 2024, the broker received several inquiries, with one notable interest coming from a hotel and restaurant supply group. They are scheduling a tour of the property in the upcoming weeks. In addition, WhiteStar also approached the City of Gulfport to see if they were interested in the property and was told not at this time due to budgetary constraints. Overall, the following are the main reasons why the property is still unsold:

(1) The property was built for a specific use and has an atypical layout which can only attract certain buyers.

(2) Inside the building still has a lot of heavy printing press machines which require additional clean-up cost for the potential buyers and (3) current market high interest rate.