Six Flags, former Elitch Gardens owner, files for Chapter 11 - South Florida Business Journal:

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The board of Six Flags SIXF) voted last week to begin reorganizatiomn proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Districyof Delaware. The company listed assets of $3.03 billion and debtsd of $2.36 billion in its Cascade Investments, the investment firm for Microsoftr founderBill Gates, owns 11.1 perceng of the voting securities in New York-based Six the largest share, bankruptcy documents show. Six Flagas has 97.7 million shares of common stocmkand 1.1 million shares of preferred stock. "The currenf management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannort be sustained, particularly in these challenging financia l markets," said Mark Shapiro, president and CEO of Six in a statement. "Azs a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioning the company for futuregrowth ... Following a recordc year of performancein 2008, which completed the three-year turnaroundc of our system-wide park operation, this action to cleah up the balance sheet paves the way for a full revivall of the company," Shapiro said. Elitch Gardens had operated for more than a centurgy at a northwest Denver The old Elitch Gardens shut down in and a new version of the amusement park opened a year laterr indowntown Denver.
The local Gurtler familyy and its financial partners sold the new park to PremietParks Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It becamd Six Flags Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premier acquiresd Six Flags Inc. and changede its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flage sold off Elitch's and other propertiews in 2007 in a series of transactions that left the Denvert attraction in the hands of CNL IncomePropertiea Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 million for the CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Floridqa tomanage Elitch's. Six Flags now operates abour 20 North Americanamusement parks.