BRD Land & Investment, a South Carolina partnership specializing in acquiring and preparing raw land for homebuilders, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 24, 2026, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. The filing encompasses three related entities and lists $66.5 million in outstanding promissory notes held by various individuals and entities and roughly $20 million owed to senior secured lender DLP Lending Fund, LLC. The Debtors cited a decline in the residential development market in 2025 and collection actions by their senior lender as the primary factors leading to the filing.
Company Background and Business Operations
BRD Land & Investment, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, operates as an entitlement and permitting company focused on selling shovel-ready land to national and regional homebuilders. The company identifies and acquires raw, undeveloped land, conducts due diligence including surveys, geotechnical reports, and environmental assessments, coordinates with municipal planning departments for rezoning and site plan approvals, and works with engineering firms to complete all required permitting. The result is land that is ready for immediate development upon purchase by the company's homebuilder clients.
Two affiliated entities filed alongside the parent company. One is a project-specific entity holding title to real property in Horry County, South Carolina, and the other is a holding company that serves as the sole member and manager of the project entity. As of the filing date, the company maintained fifteen active projects located across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and had generated consolidated revenues exceeding $285 million since 2019.
Financing Structure
The company's operations were initially funded by its equity owners. As the business grew, additional capital was sourced from two primary channels. DLP Lending Fund, LLC provided secured loans for property purchases, with many transactions structured as interest-only monthly payments for one to two years followed by a balloon payment at maturity. As of the petition date, the Debtors estimate the total payoff amount on all DLP loans at roughly $20 million, secured by real property valued at approximately $34 million.
The second capital source consisted of various individuals and entities that provided funds through promissory notes. These notes were sourced through capital raisers with prior relationships to the company, who marketed lending opportunities to their networks. The company itself did not directly pitch or market the notes to lenders. The notes ranged from five to seven figures in size, with many maturing after twenty-four months on an interest-only basis with an automatic twenty-four-month extension option. Some notes were secured while others were entirely unsecured. As of the petition date, the total outstanding balance on these notes stood at $66.5 million.
Events Leading to Bankruptcy
Housing Market Contraction
In 2025, the residential development industry experienced what the filing describes as a drastic decline in first-time home purchases to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. This market shift had direct consequences for the Debtors' business. Homebuilders began canceling or renegotiating their land sale agreements, resulting in thirteen project terminations across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. An additional seven projects in Texas became nonviable due to market contraction. These terminations collectively reduced the company's total projected pipeline gross revenue by $390 million in 2025.
Senior Lender Actions
According to the Debtors' filing, their senior secured lender, DLP Lending Fund, altered its approach beginning in 2025. Previously, the filing states, DLP had exercised restraint and flexibility when homebuilders renegotiated terms or demanded price reductions. However, starting in 2025, the Debtors assert that DLP began using extension requests and project closings as leverage to force additional fees and principal paydowns beyond what the governing loan documents required.
The filing highlights the Rolling Meadows project as an example. That project was set to close at $47,265,000, but the purchaser demanded a price concession of $11,901,000, which the Debtors accepted given their inability to find a ready purchaser at the original contract price. DLP, which held a security interest in the property, demanded a $3.5 million exit fee be paid immediately at closing in October 2025 rather than at the contractual due date of October 2026, according to the affidavit. The Debtors further assert that DLP's demand for proceeds exceeded the total amount owed under the specific Rolling Meadows loan, and that the loan agreement itself required that surplus funds go to the entity owning the property. The Debtors state they ultimately paid the accelerated exit fee, resulting in a combined hit of more than $15 million on the transaction — a roughly thirty percent reduction in gross revenue from the sale.
The affidavit states that from July 2025 through January 2026, DLP reduced its outstanding debt by $7.15 million through demands for accelerated repayments in exchange for maturity date extensions and lien releases. Approximately $750,000 of those payments were made in December 2025 and January 2026.
Vendor Payment Issues
The Debtors state that with DLP receiving available cash, their vendor accounts payable grew to more than $9 million by the end of January 2026. Certain suppliers and vendors refused to continue work until their outstanding balances were paid, and some stopped work entirely. This created what the filing describes as a circular problem: the Debtors needed cash to pay vendors, but could not generate cash without selling projects, which in turn required vendors to complete their work. An anticipated increase in litigation beginning in January and February 2026 also contributed to the decision to seek bankruptcy protection.
First Day Relief Sought
The Debtors filed several First Day Motions seeking operational continuity, including requests for authorization to use cash collateral, pay prepetition taxes, continue payroll and employee benefits, maintain utility services, preserve existing bank accounts and business forms, jointly administer the related cases, and retain a claims and noticing agent. The Debtors' Chief Restructuring Officer stated that the company has adequate cash flow and liquidity to pay all amounts sought through the First Day Motions as well as anticipated post-petition obligations.
The filing states that without bankruptcy protection, the Debtors would face competing creditor actions, with DLP foreclosing on its collateral while noteholders, suppliers, and vendors pursued judgments against a diminishing pool of assets. The Chapter 11 process is intended to allow the Debtors to close sales of certain projects, potentially assume and assign others, and evaluate the viability of remaining projects in an orderly fashion.
This article was prepared using Stretto Conductor, our new AI-powered assistant that's here to help. Stretto Conductor was able to create this summary of a 9 page court filing in less than a minute. Always review the underlying docket filings for accurate information. The information and responses generated by Stretto Conductor may contain errors or inaccuracies and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional or legal advice.