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$7.5M Offer Could Start Auction of Hermitage Club Assets

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According to bankruptcy court documents, a $7.5 million offer could start the auction process for the properties formerly owned by the Hermitage Club, the Associated Press reported. Rainmaker Mountain LLC has offered $4 million for properties including the Haystack Mountain ski area, two inns in West Dover and undeveloped parcels of land in Wilmington. The company also proposed purchasing the Barnstormer chairlift for $3.5 million. A trustee assigned to oversee the Hermitage Club bankruptcy describes the sale as valuable to both the creditors and the estate. The trustee is looking for a bid deadline of Feb. 20 with a sale on Feb. 25.

Bay Area Hospital Facing Closure May Have New Buyer

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Seton Medical Center, the 127-year-old Daly City, Calif., hospital, was on the verge of potential closure after a deal to buy the hospital from its bankrupt owner fell apart last month. Now it’s in talks to be sold to another buyer, according to the president of the hospital’s medical staff, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Seton and Seton Coastside, a smaller affiliated facility in Moss Beach, may soon be acquired by Apollo Medical Holdings and AHMC Healthcare, a Southern California health management company, said Dr. Robert Perez, who oversees the hospital’s physicians and is knowledgeable about the discussions. Verity Health System, Seton’s current owner, declined to say whether it is talking to prospective buyers, saying only that it is “actively working on many options.” Apollo did not immediately return a request for comment. A deal could take several weeks to close and would have to be approved by the judge overseeing bankruptcy proceedings for Verity, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018. Seton, which serves many low-income and elderly patients — and is Daly City’s largest employer, with 1,200 employees and 350 doctors and nurse practitioners — was at risk of closing within two months if another potential buyer had not come forward, Perez said.

Alta Mesa Set to Test Lead Bid for Assets

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Mach Resources LLC and Bayou City Energy Management LLC once again look to pick up assets in chapter 11, The Deal reported. Court papers show Houston upstream energy company Alta Mesa Resources Inc. on Jan. 15 is set to auction its assets in connection with a $310 million stalking-horse offer from joint venture BCE-Mach III LLC. Bayou City, a Houston upstream-focused private equity firm, already is a backer of Alta Mesa. The lead bid covers both Alta Mesa’s assets and those of its nonbankrupt Kingfisher Midstream LLC unit, which provides midstream energy services, including crude oil and gas gathering, processing and marketing and produced water disposal in the Stack play. Kingfisher would file for chapter 11 by Jan. 15 to complete the sale, which would reserve $85.25 million for Kingfisher’s estate, with the remainder of proceeds allocated to Alta Mesa. Alta Mesa and Kingfisher combined in February 2018 via a reverse merger with Silver Run Acquisition Corp. II that then was expected to create a public company with a market capitalization of $3.8 billion. Alta Mesa, however, said it subsequently faced depressed oil prices, a lack of liquidity and too much debt. Under amended bidding procedures approved Dec. 19 by Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur, most interested parties have until Jan. 8 to submit offers for Alta Mesa’s assets; the debtor’s secured lenders have until Jan. 10. BCE-Mach would receive a 3 percent breakup fee if topped at auction.

Johnson Publishing Artwork Going on Auction Block

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Bankrupt Johnson Publishing Co., the former owner of Ebony and Jet magazines, will sell off art that once decorated the company’s Chicago headquarters, the Associated Press reported. Among the art to be auctioned Jan. 30 at a New York gallery will be paintings, sculptures and other works from 75 African American artists. Among the pieces is a painting by Carrie Mae Weems that chronicles the migration from the south of thousands of African Americans seeking to escape Jim Crow laws and anti-black violence. Johnson Publishing filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in April, citing debts and unsuccessful attempts to restructure or sell the company. In a July bankruptcy auction, Johnson Publishing sold its Ebony photo archives to a consortium of foundations for $30 million. Its Fashion Fair Cosmetics business was sold in December for $1.85 million. In 2016, Ebony and Jet were sold to Clear View Group, a Texas equity firm.

Owner of Bankrupt L.A. Estate Cuts Listing Price to $125 Million

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The owner of a Beverly Hills mansion once owned by publisher William Randolph Hearst wants to put the property, now in bankruptcy, back on the market for $125 million, a lower price than what he had asked for in recent years, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Beverly House, a 3.5-acre estate featured in the memorable horse-head scene from “The Godfather,” has been on and off the market over the last decade, listing for $195 million in 2016 and $135 million last year. The estate’s owner, Leonard Ross, put the property into chapter 11 bankruptcy last month to avoid foreclosure and has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to list the property again at the reduced price. If the request is approved in bankruptcy court, the estate will hit the market at a time when Los Angeles has a number of high-end properties for sale and many homes listed for more than $100 million have seen their price tags cut. Ross has selected Los Angeles real-estate agents Mauricio Umansky and Santiago Arana of real-estate brokerage firm The Agency to market and potentially sell Beverly House, according to court papers filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles County.

Barneys Ends Online Sales as It Prepares for New Ownership

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Barneys New York Inc. has stopped offering clearance merchandise on its websites, which now redirect to Saks Fifth Avenue’s sites, Bloomberg News reported. The retailer suspended closeout sales on Barneys.com and Barneyswarehouse.com sites and is transferring the remaining goods to Barneys stores slated to close, according to a representative for B. Riley Financial Inc., the firm handling the liquidation sales. Clearance at those stores will continue through January and possibly into early February. Barneys, which filed for bankruptcy in August, is closing most of its stores after Authentic Brands Group LLC won court approval to buy it. Authentic, which owns and operates consumer and celebrity brands, plans to open Barneys shops inside about 40 Saks Fifth Avenue stores. Users who type in the previous Barneys domain names now see pages reading Barneys at Saks or Saks Off Fifth.