Owner of Hialeah Track Buys Into Ailing Sun S & L
The owner of the Hialeah Racetrack in Florida has bought 7.4% of the common stock in financially ailing Sun Savings & Loan Assn., according to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
John J. Brunetti, a New Jersey real estate developer and president and chairman of Hialeah Inc., operator and owner of Hialeah Racetrack just north of Miami, purchased 88,400 shares of Sun common stock on the open market for more than $363,700 between Jan. 10 and Jan. 27, according to the filing.
Brunetti’s interest in Sun Savings is for investment purposes, according to the filing.
The document, referred to as a Schedule 13D, is required of any investor who purchases more than 5% of a SEC-registered company.
Brunetti purchased all but 500 of his shares for $4 per share; the others were bought for $3.75. Sun stock closed Friday at $4 per share.
The SEC filing covers stock purchases only in January, and the New Jersey businessman has reportedly been purchasing additional shares of Sun stock since the document was filed, according to Sun sources.
Brunetti made one dozen separate stock purchases of Sun stock last month, the largest being a 39,500-share block purchased for nearly $162,000. It was that purchase on Jan. 23 that gave Brunetti more than 5% of Sun’s stock and triggered the Schedule 13D filing.
Brunetti is a veteran developer and landlord, whose projects include several apartment complexes in Bergen County, a heavily suburbanized, affluent area in Northeastern New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City.
His father, Joseph Brunetti, was a prominent builder from Hackensack who was a driving force in sparking suburban housing in northern New Jersey.
Sun Savings President and Chief Executive John McEwan said he has never heard or communicated with Brunetti.
“I’m taking the 13D filing at face value--that he is seeking to make a profit on our stock,” McEwan said.
Van D. Greenfield, whose New York firm is attempting to infuse $7 million in Sun in exchange for a block of stock of between 42% and 70%, said he “knows nothing about” Brunetti. “I think he’s just an investor,” Greenfield said Friday.
Times staff writer Janny Scott contributed to this story.
