Churchill Downs Inc. sells just over 115 acres of Calder property for $291 million

Churchill Downs Inc. has reached an agreement to sell 115.7 acres of its Calder Casino property in Miami for $291 million, the company announced late on Monday.

The transaction, which encompasses much of the land that was used for the horse racing operations at the site when Churchill operated Calder Race Course, is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, according to Churchill. Under the agreement, the land is valued at approximately $2.5 million per acre.

Calder last held a live horse race in late 2020, under a lease with the owner of Gulfstream Park that was first signed in 2014. Churchill operates a casino on the property, but it ceased having any involvement with racing there when the lease with Gulfstream was signed.

The land is being sold to Link Logistics, a real-estate company started in 2019 by The Blackstone Group, a private equity company. According to its website, Link Logistics operates logistics facilities totaling 400 million square feet in the U.S., “particularly strategic last-mile locations.”

In a release, Churchill said it plans to market an additional 15-20 acres of the Calder property “for retail development.”

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Churchill said that it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to “purchase or invest” in property that qualifies for tax breaks under so-called “like-kind” provisions of the U.S. tax code.

Earlier this year, Churchill announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its 326-acre Arlington Park property outside of Chicago, Illinois, for $197.2 million, or approximately $660,000 an acre. That transaction is not expected to close until early 2023, Churchill has said. The purchase agreement was reached with the Chicago Bears NFL football team, which has expressed dissatisfaction about its lease with the city for Soldier Field in downtown Chicago.