‘Expected’ closing date passes with no sale of Phillips 66 property

LOUISVILLE — The expected time frame for Bancroft Capital to close on the purchase of the 432-acre Phillips 66 property in Louisville has come and gone, and neither party is willing to talk about it.

Last year, media reports indicated that California-based real estate investment firm Bancroft Capital had the property under contract for $50 million, and the deal was expected to close during the first quarter of 2018.

Dennis Nuss, director of media and external relations for Houston-based Phillips 66 Co., said via email on Wednesday, “I can confirm that the transaction did not close as expected. We are not able to provide any further details at this time.”

Doug McDonald, founder of Bancroft Capital, on Wednesday neither confirmed nor denied that the sale was still pending, saying his company was under a nondisclosure agreement imposed by Phillips 66 to not talk to the media about the transaction.

The city of Louisville’s planning department as of Wednesday had not received any plans for the property.

The property in Louisville was owned by Storage Technology Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. before being sold to ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) in 2008 for $55.6 million, where it planned to build a world-class research and training campus focusing on sustainable energy.
ConocoPhillips subsequently spun off Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) into an independent company, which inherited the project but never moved forward, although the site had been cleared.

In 2012, Phillips 66 paid Conoco $38.1 million as part of the split of assets, according to Boulder County property records.

In June 2017, Phillips 66 entered into an agreement to “sell land in Louisville to a land development company,” according to documents filed in August with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing stated that Phillips 66 was banking on a price of $50 million and expected to close the sale in the first quarter of 2018.

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