Bankruptcy

Just months after Erickson Retirement Communities filed for bankruptcy, the company's new owners say they are poised for expansion with the same business model that seized up along with the housing and credit markets last year. Local entrepreneur Jim Davis, whose Redwood Capital Investments LLC bought Erickson for $365 million this month, said the Catonsville-based company is more financially sound than ever after wiping out most of its debt through the bankruptcy. That will enable Erickson to move forward in the next year with new housing at about a dozen of its existing communities that are not fully developed, he said.

A Wednesday bankruptcy filing by Synagro Technologies Inc. means growth and new jobs for the Baltimore area as the waste recycler consolidates its headquarters in White Marsh. The Carlyle Group LP-owned company, which had been co-headquartered in Baltimore and Houston, said Wednesday that it would use bankruptcy to restructure debt and sell its assets to EQT Infrastructure in a $455 million deal. The company filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization of its debts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and said it expects the sale to be completed in two to three months.

Cobbler & Cleaners Inc., the Baltimore area shoe repair and dry cleaning chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.At one time Cobbler & Cleaners was a chain of eight stores, including two shops downtown. The downtown stores still carry the Cobbler & Cleaners name but are not owned by the chain and are not part of the bankruptcy proceedings.The chain currently owns three stores with assets of $20,700 and debts of more than $700,000, according to a bankruptcy petition filed Wednesday by owners Henry B. Tucker and Mayta N. Tucker.

The nearly two dozen creditors of payroll firm AccuPay Inc. who jammed a hearing room in Baltimore's federal courthouse Tuesday left with no more answers than when they arrived. Bel Air-based AccuPay, which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in March, is being investigated for allegedly defrauding clients, many of whom run small businesses in Harford County, by failing for years to remit their tax payments to federal and state tax collectors. The creditors meeting at the Edward A. Garmatz Federal Building, a routine step in the bankruptcy process, offered the first chance since the allegations came to light for creditors to get answers from owners of AccuPay, which shut down abruptly at the end of February.

Liquidation of some of the 399 Borders stores could begin as soon as Friday , the company has announced, pending court approval at a hearing tomorrow. The book and music chain operates large stores in Timonium, Columbia and Annapolis, as well as smaller mall stores in White Marsh, Columbia, Westminster and BWI Marshall Airport. Nationwide, there are 10,700 employees who will be dealing with this closure, not to mention the book lovers who liked to browse the shelves.

The bankruptcy of the development company behind the Westport Waterfront project can move forward as a Chapter 11 reorganization. Inner Harbor West LLC, one of the companies that developer Patrick Turner formed as part of his planned revitalization of roughly 43 acres in southwest Baltimore, sought Chapter 11 status shortly after an involuntary Chapter 7 petition was filed against the company by two creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert A. Gordon's order allowing the conversion from Chapter 7 to Chapter 11 was entered Monday.

It might have been trash-talking, but Jamal Lewis made good on his promise. The young Baltimore Raven broke the single-day rushing record by running for 295 yards in the 2003 home opener at the stadium newly rechristened for the company that had bought the naming rights, M&T Bank. Today, though, the now retired Lewis and M&T are linked in court rather than on the field. Lewis filed for bankruptcy in Georgia in April, listing $14.5 million in assets and $10.6 million in debts — among them, a more than $350,000 judgment on a defaulted loan from the bank whose name hangs over the Ravens' stadium.

The developer of the Yorkway housing development in Dundalk filed for personal bankruptcy this week, but Baltimore County doesn't expect the move to affect the much-anticipated community, which broke ground in September. John F. Vontran and his wife, Kelly A. Vontran, of Perry Hall, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and list nearly $10 million in liabilities, which include personal and business-related loans. Creditors include the Patapsco Bank for a $3.3 million obligation related to a business operation and bakery magnate and Inner Harbor East developer John Paterakis for $1 million, also a business-related loan listed as disputed, according to documents filed with the federal bankruptcy court in Maryland.

CHICAGO - Mall operator General Growth Properties Inc. said a bankruptcy court has approved its plan to restructure $10.25 billion in debt related to 103 properties as part of its effort to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. General Growth, which owns many of the Baltimore region's malls and is based in Chicago, filed the largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy case in history in April. Under the reorganization plan, the approval of which was announced Tuesday, 194 debtors owning 85 regional shopping centers, 15 office properties and three community centers will emerge from bankruptcy "as soon as practible."

Erickson Retirement Communities, the national chain of campus-style senior living facilities, emerged from bankruptcy Friday less than six months after filing the Chapter 11 case, attorneys said. Catonsville-based Erickson is being sold to Redwood Capital Investments LLC, a Baltimore-based investment firm, for $365 million. The sale — expected to close by the end of the month — and a post-bankruptcy reorganization plan have been approved by a federal bankruptcy court in Texas, attorneys for Erickson and affiliated debtors announced.

The family owners of The Inn at the Black Olive in Fells Point hope a bankruptcy filing Thursday will give them time to try to attract investors and keep operating the 2-year-old boutique hotel, their bankruptcy attorney said. The Black Olive Development Co. LLC's Chapter 7 filing in Baltimore's U.S. Bankruptcy Court prevented a planned foreclosure auction of the 12-suite luxury inn on South Caroline Street from going forward Thursday morning. Chapter 7 permits an orderly liquidation of assets to repay creditors, but the case could be converted to a Chapter 11 reorganization if the company finds investors.

A Bel Air payroll company under investigation for allegedly not forwarding clients' tax payments to tax collectors has filed for bankruptcy. AccuPay Inc. filed a petition for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore, listing 95 creditors and debts of between $100,001 and $500,000. Chapter 7 allows for an orderly liquidation of a company's assets to pay off creditors. A bankruptcy attorney for the company's owners said Wednesday that his clients believe they will have funds available to pay creditors.

The bankruptcy of the development company behind the Westport Waterfront project can move forward as a Chapter 11 reorganization. Inner Harbor West LLC, one of the companies that developer Patrick Turner formed as part of his planned revitalization of roughly 43 acres in southwest Baltimore, sought Chapter 11 status shortly after an involuntary Chapter 7 petition was filed against the company by two creditors. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert A. Gordon's order allowing the conversion from Chapter 7 to Chapter 11 was entered Monday.

The only residents of the Westport waterfront last week were a gaggle of geese that commandeered a large puddle amid the brush and broken asphalt. The only structure was a battered chain-link fence, capturing wind-blown litter along the perimeter. By now the 43-acre tract, assembled and cleared over several years with millions of dollars and personal resolve, was supposed to house hundreds and bustle with office workers. There should be a towering skyscraper and a stadium. Instead, the development company that was going to make that happen is in bankruptcy and the future of the $1.4 billion Westport Waterfront project, thought of as a potential "Harbor West," is uncertain.

The company affiliated with developer Patrick Turner that was planning to redevelop the waterfront of the Westport neighborhood in southwest Baltimore has filed for bankruptcy. Inner Harbor West LLC, the subject of a Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy petition filed by two creditors earlier this month, has asked a federal judge to convert the case to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to documents filed Tuesday in Maryland's bankruptcy court. If the change is allowed, Inner Harbor West LLC could reorganize with trustee oversight and develop a plan to repay creditors.

Several creditors of Commerce Corp. filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the Maryland-based distributor of lawn and garden supplies. In the petition filed last week, five creditors claim they are owed a combined $1.73 million from the Curtis Bay distributor and want it placed in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. The creditors are DeWitt Co. Inc. in Missouri; Franklin Electric Co. Inc. of Indiana; Dramm Corp. of Wisconsin; and Premier Horticulture Inc. and J.R. Peters Inc., both of Pennsylvania.

Mental health rehabilitation and addiction treatment center Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection because it owes more than $5.5 million to creditors and estimates its assets are less than $500,000, according to federal court filings. The center will continue to operate during the Chapter 11 restructuring, said CEO Terry T. Brown. "There's a need for us to be here," Brown said of the nonprofit company's West Pratt Street facility, on the northern edge of the Pigtown neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore.

The liberal political organizing group ACORN is on the verge of bankruptcy after a string of disclosures about mismanagement that caused funding to dry up, according to a person familiar with the organization. Leaders of the group and their advisers have been discussing options for weeks as donors, including foundations and government entities, have cut back on funding, according to another source, who took part in talks about ACORN's future. Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, said ACORN leaders have told him of plans to file for bankruptcy and form a new entity to serve as a public policy link to local and state chapters "without the name of ACORN."

Unsecured creditors in the RG Steel bankruptcy case withdrew Friday their request to sue the company's billionaire founder. The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors had in January asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington for permission to go after Ira Rennert, alleging that his decisions in the months before RG Steel collapsed were aimed at worsening the company's finances to shore up his own. The committee said it might be able to recover...

Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co. said Thursday it will adjust the estimated cost of settling its asbestos-related liabilities to $2 billion from the previous estimate of $1.7 billion. The increase reflects higher estimated values of a common stock warrant and deferred payment obligations to be paid to a trust to compensate personal-injury claimants and property owners under the company's bankruptcy reorganization. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001, partly as a result of asbestos-related lawsuits filed by residents of Libby, Mont., and others.