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Standard Amusements filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, weeks after Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced that he was ending their deal, which was the company’s largest source of revenue.
Latimer announced in April that the county will be terminating the contract with Standard because it “did not engage in the ongoing process to resolve its breaches of the Playland Agreement.”
In its bankruptcy filing, Standard Amusements asked for a stay that would block the county from terminating its deal “or otherwise taking steps that would frustrate (the company’s) preservation of the agreement.”
Standard Amusements and the county have been at odds for months, with the two taking parting shots at one another before the deal was officially terminated.
“We outlined in detail over a year ago the basic problems we had with the original deal, and more recently, the failures of Standard to honor its commitments in the manager's investment,” Latimer stated on Tuesday, May 21. “We wanted to work toward an amicable termination of the contract; later in the process, we offered an opportunity for Standard to provide consulting services in partnership with the County to reposition and strengthen the park.”
Standard Amusements reportedly owes approximately $529,000 to 18 debtors, with liabilities listed at more than $700,000.
“We have held press conferences answering all questions from the press about this matter,” Latimer noted. “On the other hand, Standard has not been forthcoming about the source and terms of the investment it claims is available to the company to satisfy its obligations to invest $27.75 million in Playland. Standard has refused to allow the county to complete its audit of the amounts Standard claims to have invested in the park.
“We already know that the vast majority of those amounts cannot properly be claimed as part of the company’s contractually defined Manager’s Investment. Standard has yet to publicly answer questions about its investors, its specific plans for the park, the specific projects it would use its capital to fund, and a wide range of legitimate operational questions.”
In his bankruptcy declaration, Nicholas Singer, the head of Standard Amusements said that the filing was only after the company “exhausted all other alternatives, because of the unjustified, bad faith efforts” of Westchester officials.
“SA’s investors remain committed to continuing funding SA although such funding is expressly conditioned on the Agreement remaining in full force and effect,” he stated. “If there is a successful resolution of SA’s disputes with the County, funding to SA by its investors will be automatically restored.”
Last week, Latimer said all Westchester residents “want what is best for Playland,” and that the agreement with Standard was doomed to fail.
“We all want what is best for Playland, and we agree that a public-private partnership can accomplish that mission – but this deal with Standard Amusement is not a partnership; it is a giveaway of authority and responsibility of a precious public asset to a private organization whose motives and processes are at best, unclear, and at worse, deceptive,” he said.
“We would be derelict in our public duties to simply accept a bad deal struck by others, and meekly acquiesce to the end of public management of Playland for the benefit of the people of Westchester.”
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