Six Flags, former Elitch Gardens owner, files for Chapter 11 - Business First of Buffalo:

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The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: voted last week to begin reorganizatiomn proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Courrt for the Districtof Delaware. The companh listed assets of $3.03 billion and debts of $2.36 billionn in its filing. Cascade Investments, the investmenf firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the votin securities in New York-based Six Flags, the largest share, bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 milliob shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferred stock. "Ther current management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannof be sustained, particularly in these challenging financia markets," said Mark Shapiro, presiden t and CEO of Six Flags, in a "As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioningh the company for future growth ... Following a recorcd year of performancein 2008, which completed the three-yeaer turnaround of our system-wide park this action to clean up the balancse sheet paves the way for a full revivalo of the company," Shapiro said. Elitch Gardenz had operated for more than a centuryg at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitcg Gardens shut downin 1994, and a new versioh of the amusement park opened a year later in downtowj Denver.
The local Gurtler family and its financial partnerz sold the new park to PremierParkzs Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It became Six Flagas Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premierf acquired Six Flags Inc. and changee its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flags sold off Elitch's and othet properties in 2007 in a seriese of transactions that left the Denver attraction in the hands of CNL IncomreProperties Inc., a real estate investment trust basedc in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 milliomn for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Florida tomanag Elitch's. Six Flags now operates about 20 North Americanamusement parks.