Alums hope to ‘out-organize institutional buyers’ to save childhood camps after bankrupcies

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David Zaslav has some rivals in his attempt to help buy "summer camp kings" Michael and David Shabsels’ out of their $500 million debt and revive their camps, Page Six has learned.

We're told camp alumni are getting their bunks back together to buy parts of the firm.

“Several other… camps have alumni are quietly organizing their own capital to bid on it directly – ordinary former campers, now adults, are trying to out-organize institutional buyers to keep their childhood camps intact, for the future of their children and generations to come," an insider familiar with the situation told Page Six.

The brothers invested in more than 30 camps across the US, with at least 20 of them catering towards Jews.

They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Israeli creditors filed a lawsuit claiming the brothers owe $210 million — $270 million including interest — with additional suits filed by other creditors, totaling more than $100 million, according to The Jerusalem Post . Additionally, tons of the brothers' other companies, including dozens of real estate assets, filed Chapter 11.

The filings have thrust the camps into one of the biggest bankruptcy cases in real estate history, according to The Real Deal, which reported on the sudden collapse of the brother's company, Simad Holdings, just as camp season kicked off in June. The brothers reportedly sold their Camp Achim in the Catskills to its longtime manager for $7 million and our source told us, "there are stalking horse bids on many of the camps including $17 million for [Camp] Chen-A-Wanda," in the Poconos.

Zaslav bid $68 million on Mohawk Day Camp in Westchester County, a camp his adult children attended in their youth. "This is a personal family investment that reflects our lifelong belief that summer camp can be a wonderful part of a child’s growth, and Mohawk’s history as a successful camp experience for so many kids, including our own," the Warner Bros. Disovery honcho told Page Six via a spokesperson.

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