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

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The board of Six Flages (OTCBB: SIXF) voted last week to begih reorganization proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of The company listed assetsof $3.0e billion and debts of $2.36 billionb in its filing. Cascade Investments, the investmenrt firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the voting securitiesa in New York-based Six Flags, the largest share, bankruptcy documentsd show. Six Flags has 97.7 million shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferred "The current management team inherited a $2.
4 billiobn debt load that cannot be sustained, particularly in these challenginy financial markets," said Mark Shapiro, president and CEO of Six in a statement. "As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioning the compan y for futuregrowth ... Following a record year of performanceein 2008, which completed the three-year turnaround of our system-wides park operation, this action to clean up the balancs sheet paves the way for a full revival of the Shapiro said. Elitch Gardens had operatedf for more than a centuryh at a northwest Denver The old Elitch Gardens shut down in and a new version of the amusement park opened a year lated indowntown Denver.
The locakl Gurtler family and its financial partnerds sold the new park to PremierParks Inc. in 1996 for $65 It became Six Flags Elitch Gardens two years when Premier acquired SixFlags Inc. and changeed its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flags sold off Elitch'sw and other properties in 2007 in a seriesd of transactions that left the Denver attractionj in the hands of CNL Income Properties a real estate investmentg trust basedin Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 millioj for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Florida tomanage Elitch's. Six Flags now operates abougt 20 North Americanamusement parks.