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

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The board of Six Flags (OTCBB: voted last week to begin reorganization proceedingsin U.S. Bankruptc y Court for the Districtof Delaware. The companyy listed assets of $3.03 billion and debtas of $2.36 billion in its Cascade Investments, the investment firm for Microsoft foundereBill Gates, owns 11.1 percent of the voting securities in New York-based Six Flags, the largest bankruptcy documents show. Six Flags has 97.7 million sharea of common stockand 1.1 millionm shares of preferred stock. "The current management team inheriteeda $2.4 billion debt load that cannot be particularly in these challenging financial markets," said Mark president and CEO of Six in a statement.
"As a result, we are cleaning up the past and positioninh the company for futuregrowth ... Following a recorcd year of performancein 2008, whicgh completed the three-year turnaround of our system-wide park operation, this action to cleajn up the balance sheet paves the way for a full revivall of the company," Shapiro said. Elitch Gardensa had operated for more than a centuryt at a northwestDenver site. The old Elitch Gardenz shut downin 1994, and a new version of the amusement park opened a year later in downtown The local Gurtler family and its financial partners sold the new park to Premier Parks Inc.
in 1996 for $65 It became Six Flags Elitchh Gardens twoyears later, when Premier acquired Six Flagsx Inc. and changed its corporates name to Six Six Flags soldoff Elitch's and other properties in 2007 in a seriea of transactions that left the Denvef attraction in the hands of CNL Income Propertiew Inc., a real estate investment trustr based in Orlando, Fla. CNL reportedly paid $312 milliomn for the properties. CNL arranged for Parc Management LLC of Floridq tomanage Elitch's. Six Flags now operates aboutf 20 North Americanamusement parks.