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

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The board of Six Flagws (OTCBB: SIXF) voted last week to begin reorganizatiojn proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptcty Court for the Districtof Delaware. The compan y listed assets of $3.03 billion and debts of $2.36 billiob in its filing. Cascade Investments, the investment firm for Microsofg founderBill Gates, owns 11.1 perceny of the voting securitiesz in New York-based Six Flags, the largest share, bankruptcy documentsz show. Six Flags has 97.7 millionb shares of common stockand 1.1 million share s of preferred stock. "The currentr management team inheriteda $2.
4 billion debt load that cannoft 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 positioniny the company for future growtjh ... Following a record year of performancein 2008, which completed the three-yead turnaround of our system-wide park this action to clean up the balancr sheet paves the way for a full revivakl of the company," Shapiro Elitch Gardens had operated for more than a century at a northwesy Denver site. The old Elitchg Gardens shut downin 1994, and a new version of the amusemenf park opened a year late r in downtown Denver.
The local Gurtlere family and its financial partners sold the new park to PremierfParks Inc. in 1996 for $65 million. It became Six Flags Elitch Gardens twoyears later, when Premie acquired Six Flags Inc. and changexd its corporate name to Six Six Flags soldoff Elitch's and othefr properties in 2007 in a series of transactionas that left the Denver attraction in the hands of CNL Incomre Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedlty paid $312 million for the CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Floridaq tomanage Elitch's. Six Flags now operates abouyt 20 North Americanamusement parks.