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Jack VanGessel

Real Estate

Jack VanGessel is a seasoned professional with a diverse educational background and extensive experience in various organizations. He pursued his education at Michigan State University, Grand Rapids Community College, Aquinas College - Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids High School, and Grand Valley State University Seidman School of Business. Jack has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in business and related fields through his academic endeavors.

Highlights

Apr 27 · linkedin

Now that the camping season has begun for 2024, a major update for my business!

The last nine months have been unbelievable and only in my wildest dreams thought would be possible before I turned 27.

My team at Recreation Ventures LLC just pulled off our biggest acquisition to date! Having an amazing team internally as well as business partners and relationships make even the toughest deals a reality.

We were approached in June of 2023 by a local operator of family campgrounds to gauge our interest in purchasing River Ridge Family Campground. They had owned it for several years, inheriting a park in rough shape and spent the succeeding years undergoing a complete renovation of the park. They were looking to sell as they are nearly doubling the size of their other park and so they decided to part ways with the smaller of the two parks they owned.

My partners were not immediately sold as we are undergoing massive renovation projects of our own at Just In Time Campground & River Rock Campground but I was determined to purchase this deal as it fit within the existing portfolio of parks we owned and operated, knowing we could take our operating successes from the other two parks and integrate that with a third.

So after the existing bank refused to provide a loan commitment, we got to work on putting together the right capital stack and worked hard on finding a bank that saw our vision.

Given our operating successes at the other parks and a belief that we were buying an undervalued park (that would be confirmed later by an appraisal that was 28% higher than purchase price), I thought financing would be the least of our worries.. and so came and went the original closing date.. then a second.. fortunately the seller believed in us so much, they gave us a third and FINAL extension. I know our attorney Neil Williams was sensing my frustrations 🤣

We knew we had to close by 4/1 but there I was sitting early March with a bank concerned they would not be able to fund by that time and a seller who was insistent they would bring the deal to market if we didn't close.. Thus being a broker, I wasn't willing to gamble that risk. Fortunately for us, we have built a network of amazing resources. Mordy Jurkowitz and his team at Princeton Capital Group came through for us again, closing the loan in under 15 days from the time it went to loan committee to the day we closed.. Absolutely unheard of in the CRE space, let alone the alternative asset arena.. your gift is soon on its way :) And HUGE shoutout as always to Rory Byrne and Mark Ruis for grinding out the 1000 title and closing adjustments!

So THANK YOU to our amazing partners! This is just the beginning chapter of what I hope is a long run in the hospitality and entertainment business.

Vander Ploeg, Bergakker & Associates Ryan Gleeson

Miller Johnson Neil Williams

Fishbeck Kirk Perschbacher, E.P. Ariane Savoy

Princeton Capital Group Mordy Jurkowitz Henny Heisler

Chicago Title Rory Byrne Mark Ruis

Jack VanGessel
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Location

Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States