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

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The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: voted last week to begin reorganization proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcy Courr for the District of The company listed assetsof $3.03 billion and debte of $2.36 billion in its filing. Cascade the investment firm for Microsoft founder Bill owns 11.1 percent of the voting securities in New York-base Six Flags, the largest bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 millionh shares of common stockand 1.1 million shares of preferresd stock. "The current management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannog be sustained, particularly in these challenging financial markets," said Mark president and CEO of Six Flags, in a "As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioninfg the company for future growth ... Followingv a record year of performancein 2008, whichy completed the three-year turnaround of our system-widre park operation, this actionn to clean up the balance sheer paves the way for a full revival of the Shapiro said. Elitch Gardens had operated for more than a centuryu at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitch Gardens shut down in and a new version of the amusement park openedc a year later indowntown Denver.
The local Gurtlef family and its financiapl partners sold the new park to PremierParkes Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It becamr Six Flags Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premier acquired Six Flags Inc. and changed its corporate name toSix Flags. Six Flagsd sold off Elitch's and other properties in 2007 in a seriez of transactions that left the Denver attraction in the hande of CNL IncomeProperties Inc., a real estatd investment trust based in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedlh paid $312 million for the properties. CNL arrangex for Parc Management LLC of Florida tomanage Elitch's. Six Flag now operates about 20 North Americanhamusement parks.