What’s next for the remains of Spirit Airlines? A deadline is coming soon

Business admin June 22, 2026 0 Comments

What’s next for the remains of Spirit Airlines? A deadline is coming soon

The sleek headquarters that used to be home to Spirit Airlines is for sale, and the first deadline to submit bids is this week.

Who will buy it? Interested people or companies have until 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, to submit an initial expression of interest.

Broward County government had talked about making a bid for the building, amid the shops and restaurants of Dania Pointe, but that is unlikely to happen after leaders put that idea on hold.

After expressing interest earlier this month, the county won’t be bidding for now, Broward Mayor Mark Bogen told the Miami Herald by phone Sunday evening.

This first deadline allows the lowest bids, and if accepted by the company or its debtors, would set the base for future competitive bids.

The final deadline for bids is 4 p.m. July 20. Final offers must be submitted to the bankruptcy judge in New York overseeing Spirit. If there’s not one clear winner, an auction will take place in New York at 10 a.m. July 22 at Davis Polk & Wardell LLP, the law firm representing Spirit. This is all according to court filings part of the bankruptcy process.

Broward-based Spirit abruptly shut down on May 2, and 17,000 people are now out of work. More than 2,500 employees were based at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Just two years earlier, the airline moved into its new headquarters in Dania Beach.

But last August, Spirit entered its second bankruptcy restructuring in under two years. In March, it presented a rough framework agreed to by creditors that outlined how it could turn things around. But a subsequent spike in fuel costs due to the U.S. war with Iran and related global volatility made that plan unworkable.

Since it shut down, Spirit has proceeded with sales of its assets such as coveted boarding gates it had access to across U.S. airports and some airplanes. The airline also had to return property, including many jets, to the companies from which they were leased. The process is complex and ongoing.

For example, in June, Spirit agreed to turn over to Delta Air Lines “gates C4 and C6, the ticketing lobby, and support space” at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for $12 million in a competitive bidding process, according to court filings.

Spirit is accepting offers for 22 gates it has at LaGuardia Airport that it previously said could be worth $87 million. The deadline for final bids is June 30.

Meanwhile, Spirit has received an overture from a company called Florida Air Express. In a court filing that doubled as a proposal, owner LeRoy Gillead II described this new potential carrier as “The Flagship Air Carrier of Florida.”

Florida Air Express is owned by Spanish Main International Airlines & Companies Inc. It’s unclear what operational experience either one has, but Gillead wrote a letter proposing they acquire Spirit’s assets, including planes and rights to gates. Doing so would be “a transformative acquisition opportunity,” he wrote.

Gillead’s June 10 letter also said that “this liquidation presents a singular opportunity to acquire, at distressed pricing, precisely the operational infrastructure required to launch at scale as Florida’s dominant Ultra Low-Cost Carrier.”

But the big prize remains the former airline’s headquarters. It’s also drawn the most interest from known players. Consisting of four buildings, the main one is six stories and 180,000 square feet. An adjacent building, which has a flight simulator, was used to train pilots.

Three companies have made bids, Bob Swindell, CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, told Broward County commissioners at their June 16 meeting. But he wasn’t able to name them due to confidentiality, Mayor Bogen said.

Earlier in June, Broward County expressed interest in taking over Spirit’s former headquarters. The county’s administrative building is over 60 years old and the government was already in the process of finding a new home.

One reason for the change of mind, Bogen said, was not to get in the way of businesses coming to the region.

Bogen said that Dania Beach Mayor Joyce Davis had discouraged them because it could deprive the county of needed tax revenue from a for-profit business that potentially takes over the headquarters.

Davis “urged us not to pursue it,” Bogen said, “because of the loss of tax revenue.”

Another reason stopping the county is Kimco Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust that owns the broader Dania Pointe complex and has a say in how the buildings are used. Kimco didn’t immediately respond to request for comment from the Miami Herald.

But county counsel told the mayor they’ve not received anything in writing yet from Kimco assuring them they could use the building the way they’d like. For example, the building with the flight simulator would likely not be much use to county government.