Yogi Singh, Stewart Garland and Pushkal Basavaraj continue to show their appetite for campgrounds and nuts.
The trio, through their firms, National Land Lease Capital and AgCold, have made two additions to their business this summer.
Last month, in the foothills of western Massachusetts, they purchased Prospect Mountain Camping Resort for around $8 million.
This was a family that had owned this property for over 10 years and found itself in the age old situation of determining what’s next and determining whether or not succession was part of the equation or a sale made sense.”
The Prospect Mountain deal is the tenth campground and RV park the group has purchased in recent years and is the farthest north they’ve traveled for an acquisition to-date.
“It provides for a good beachhead in that geography,” said Singh.
Located in Granville, Massachusetts, near the Berkshires mountain region, Prospect Mountain campground is 140 acres and houses 240 camping sites, ponds, a swimming pool and other amenities.
Singh said the campground has been in business since 1947, always owned by families.
“This was a family that had owned this property for over 10 years and found itself in the age old situation of determining what’s next and determining whether or not succession was part of the equation or a sale made sense,” Singh said of the sellers.
It’s NLLC’s first campground acquisition in 2022, marking a slightly slower pace for the company than in recent years. Singh said that’s due in part to the economy and rising interest rates.
“We have taken a slightly less aggressive approach to acquisitions this year because we have tried to be deliberate in understanding where the market is going, as difficult as that is. And of course the cost of capital has gone up.”
A loan that would have come with interest rates in the high 3 percent to low 4 percent range is now over 5 percent, Singh said. Its loan for the Prospect Mountain deal was through Berkshire Bank and was brokered by Berkadia.
“Not only is it the actual cost of capital going up but banks are getting more conservative with their terms,” Singh said.
NLLC’s other RV parks and campgrounds are in Texas, Georgia, Indiana, and four in Virginia, including River’s Rest Marina and Resort, which opened in April in Charles City just east of Richmond. All of its camping properties are managed by Blue Water Development.
In addition to interest rates, Singh said gas prices have been a question mark for the industry of late.
“It’s certainly a different environment today than it was 12 months ago,” he said. “I think outdoor recreation and outdoor hospitality has had a period of boom in COVID but I think what folks are discovering as we’ve experienced different economic pressures is that it’s still the cheapest way to vacation.”
