The developer of the 20,000-seat amphitheater under construction in McKinney borrowed $20 million this summer at an 18% annual rate, pledging land it got from the city of El Paso as part of the collateral, El Paso Matters reported Sunday.
The nonprofit newsroom traced the July 17 loan through VENU Holding Corp.'s federal securities filings. The lender was Ryan LLC, a Texas tax consulting firm that has worked with the Colorado-based company since 2023 to find sites and set up economic development deals with cities. The loan ran 90 days.
VENU pledged property and other assets tied to several projects, according to the report: its planned venues in El Paso and McKinney and in Centennial, Colorado, plus a Colorado Springs property. In the filings, the company described the money as temporary financing to keep construction moving in McKinney until longer-term funding was in place.
Paid off with the land deal
That longer-term money came from the $60 million sale-leaseback of the McKinney amphitheater land and parking garage to STORE Capital, which VENU announced Oct. 21. VENU told El Paso Matters it used the proceeds to repay Ryan and to finance the rest of the McKinney construction.
"The Ryan loan did exactly what it was designed to do. It kept construction moving in McKinney, and it has been paid off in full," the company said in a statement to the newsroom. It added that its El Paso property no longer carries any lien and that its agreement with that city is unchanged.
VENU also defended the approach. Building several amphitheaters at once means using its whole balance sheet, the company said, and pledging assets for short-term construction money is a common tool.
