Ray Peepgass Plans a Syndicate Deal to Acquire Croker Concourse

Ray Peepgass’s plan to acquire Croker Concourse turns the impending collapse of Charlie Croker’s property empire into a proposed investment opportunity—and a private route to substantial brokerage fees. Peepgass expects PlannersBanc to take the building through a deed in lieu of foreclosure, sell it quietly at a steep discount, and let a new syndicate profit if its value recovers. He works to assemble both the investors and the brokerage arrangement, while disclosing different portions of his plan to Herb Richman, Harvey Wyndham, and Martha Croker.

The bank’s predicament and the proposed transfer

Peepgass describes Croker as a borrower whose position is so precarious that PlannersBanc could force him into bankruptcy at any time. The bank, however, has reasons not to do so. Croker Concourse is its largest fiasco: he spent $175 million of the bank’s money on it, and, in Peepgass’s assessment, the loan would still fail to perform even if the building were fully leased at the highest rents then available. Public foreclosure would also expose the bank’s own poor judgment during the real-estate boom. Its lending controls had not prevented the excessive loan, and a public failure would make the bank’s mistakes visible to shareholders.

Peepgass says the bank’s approved plan is to obtain the deeds to four of Croker’s developments, including Croker Concourse, through a deed in lieu of foreclosure. That route would avoid the public auction associated with foreclosure and allow PlannersBanc to negotiate sales quietly. The bank would want to dispose of the commercial properties quickly because it was not equipped to manage them. Peepgass estimates that it would sell Croker Concourse for about $50 million, a fraction of the $175 million the bank had lent against the development.

The syndicate and its projected return

Peepgass presents the discounted sale as a chance for a syndicate to buy the building with a $10 million down payment. In his example, four investors would contribute $2.5 million apiece. A mortgage of $40 million, rather than the original $175 million exposure, would leave the building’s cash flow sufficient to operate it and service the debt even at its then-current occupancy of 40 percent. Peepgass predicts that the property could recover to a value of about $120 million within two or three years.

His pitch depends on that projected recovery: the investors would buy low, hold the property while its value rebounded, and sell it for the higher figure. Peepgass describes the opportunity as a long-term gain for the participants, although the figures he offers to Herb Richman do not pass without question. Richman points out that a $120 million sale divided among four investors would mean $30 million each, not the $27 million Peepgass has cited. The exchange shows that the proposal is a sales pitch rather than a settled transaction, and that its optimistic projections invite scrutiny.

The brokerage arrangement behind the deal

Peepgass first raises the opportunity with Herb Richman, saying the bank would be willing to unload Croker Concourse for roughly $50 million and that a syndicate of financially credible Atlanta investors might want to buy it. He cannot broker the transaction himself: he works for PlannersBanc and is not a real-estate broker. He therefore seeks an outside firm to bring the investors to the deal, while presenting his own role as the connection that can make the purchase possible.

In a later approach to Harvey Wyndham, Peepgass lays out the fees in detail. He estimates a six-percent commission on the initial $50 million purchase, or $3 million; a further $7.2 million commission if the property is resold for $120 million; and another $300,000 in fees for arranging new leases. Together, these figures produce a projected $10.5 million in brokerage fees over two to three years. Peepgass proposes that Wyndham act as the broker in cooperation with Colonial Real Properties, Ltd., a Nassau-based firm he describes as a quiet partner.

The proposed split makes clear that Colonial Real Properties is not merely incidental to the arrangement. For the initial purchase, Peepgass offers Wyndham & Son one-third of the commission and Colonial two-thirds, which would leave Wyndham with a $1 million share of the $3 million fee and transfer $2 million to Colonial. On the later resale and leasing fees, he proposes an even division. Wyndham calculates that Colonial would receive $5.75 million in total and Wyndham & Son $4.75 million. Peepgass assures him that the syndicate will accept the arrangement because it will be introduced to the opportunity through Colonial’s unnamed agent, and because the investors stand to make far more than the brokers.

Martha Croker as a prospective investor

Peepgass also takes the proposal to Martha Croker, whose divorce agreement gives her a financial claim on Charlie. He tells her that a syndicate is forming to approach the bank and identifies Herb Richman and Julius Licht as its leading figures. He does not know whether Richman learned that Croker Concourse might be for sale from Charlie, and suspects Charlie has not fully faced the scale of the property he is likely to lose.

Peepgass frames Martha’s possible investment as a way to protect herself if Charlie cannot pay what he owes her in cash. He suggests that she could follow the money into Croker Concourse and become a part-owner rather than simply lose access to assets tied up in the building. To make the prospect attractive, he points to Richman and Licht’s willingness to invest $2.5 million each, characterizes them as conservative businessmen, and says a smaller contribution from Martha would be acceptable. He projects that the investment might triple or quadruple in two to three years and receive long-term capital-gains tax treatment.

Martha does not commit. She says she would need to consider how much she could put in, while the investment itself remains remote to her in that moment. What registers more immediately is Peepgass’s apparent concern for her fate and the possibility of a future in which Charlie’s financial collapse leaves her with a stake in the very building he is losing. Peepgass recognizes her interest as an opening and privately calculates what a million-dollar contribution might mean for both of them. In describing the opportunity to her, however, he omits the $6.5 million he expects to make from the deal.

Status and significance

The evidence presents Peepgass’s scheme as a plan under development, not as a completed acquisition. PlannersBanc has approved the proposed transfer of deeds, but the syndicate still needs buyers, the brokerage structure remains to be arranged, and Martha has only agreed to think about investing. The projected low purchase price and later valuation are Peepgass’s estimates, not confirmed outcomes.

The proposal links the bank’s effort to contain the embarrassment of its own lending decisions with Peepgass’s effort to turn insider knowledge into personal gain. The same quiet transfer that protects PlannersBanc from the exposure of a public auction could create a discounted purchase for the syndicate and lucrative commissions for the firms Peepgass recruits. His approach to Martha extends that strategy into Charlie’s private financial obligations: the building becomes not only a distressed asset but also a possible means for Martha to protect herself. Across the different pitches, Peepgass adjusts what he reveals, presenting the transaction as a rescue for the bank, a bargain for investors, and a chance at financial security for Martha, while keeping his own interest partly out of view.