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Fells Point Tavern is no longer serving customers, and the Thames Street restaurant’s ownership agreed to vacate the premises by Feb. 15 as it endures lengthy bankruptcy litigation, the Baltimore Sun reported. The business’s attorney in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Robert Scarlett, said yesterday that he and his client, tavern owner Vasilios Keramidas, voluntarily decided to give up the premises after they couldn’t agree with the restaurant’s landlord. According to court documents, Keramidas has not made any of his $21,000 monthly rent payments since October and owes property owners Thames Property LLC over $395,000 in unpaid rent, late fees and utilities since the lease started in June 2021. Doing business as Kali’s Court LLC, Keramidas filed for bankruptcy in the spring of 2023, stating that the restaurant owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS and the Maryland Office of the Comptroller as well as the U.S. Small Business Administration. Keramidas’ attorney said the business was one of “an array of” restaurants in Baltimore that suffered from the coronavirus pandemic, which started in March 2020, struggles he said led to the restaurant filing for bankruptcy in May. Their application noted that $160,000 in rent was past due, and their monthly payment needed to be renegotiated and is still pending nearly seven months later. The business’s landlord filed a motion in November asking a bankruptcy court judge to order the restaurant to turn over the property, alleging that the restaurant had paid only $25,400 against nearly $198,000 that had come due in the months since filing the petition.

Adam Neumann, the former chief executive and co-founder of WeWork, is trying to regain control of the bankrupt co-working company less than five years after the board forced him out, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Monday, Neumann’s lawyers sent a letter to WeWork’s advisers saying that he is partnering with Dan Loeb’s Third Point hedge-fund firm and other investors in exploring a bid for the company. That effort is already facing challenges. Some WeWork creditors have signaled they are ready to sell the firm after it exits chapter 11, according to people familiar with the matter. But WeWork executives have been cool to Neumann’s interest. They have shut him out from information he would need to submit a bid for the company since he initially approached WeWork in December, according to Neumann’s letter that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It also isn’t clear how committed Third Point is to working with Neumann on a WeWork acquisition. A Third Point spokeswoman said the hedge fund “has not made a commitment to participate in any transaction” and had “only preliminary conversations” with Flow Global, Neumann’s real-estate company. WeWork lawyers said on Monday that the company is running short on cash and needs more money to get through its costly chapter 11 cases. In Neumann’s letter to WeWork, he said the current financial crunch was caused by the management’s lack of ability to “explore alternatives” for financial support.

WeWork may be forced to take on a new bankruptcy loan to make up for slower-than-expected progress on rent negotiations, an attorney for the shared office space provider said yesterday, Reuters reported. WeWork's post-bankruptcy business plan is premised on a significant reduction in future rent costs from its landlords, and WeWork is at a crossroads in that effort, according to attorneys for WeWork and its landlords who spoke at a bankruptcy court hearing in Newark, N.J. Several of WeWork's landlords decried the company's "hardball tactics", saying that U.S. bankruptcy law requires companies to keep up with rent for properties that they continue to use. Kris Hansen, an attorney representing WeWork creditors, said that WeWork has shown "painfully little progress" in its discussions with landlords, raising doubts about the company's long-term ability to pay its debts. WeWork attorney Steven Serajeddini acknowledged that the company's initial round of negotiations had been headed for "certain failure," but he said WeWork has had more success after withholding as much as $33 million in January rent from certain landlords. WeWork initially believed it could make it through its bankruptcy case using the $164 million of cash it had on hand in November, but it now believes that amount to be insufficient and is considering taking out a new bankruptcy loan, Serajeddini said. A new loan would likely be converted into WeWork equity after the company emerges from bankruptcy, he said.

Invitae, a medical genetics company that received backing from SoftBank Group at the height of the pandemic has hired restructuring advisers and is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company is working with FTI Consulting and law firm Kirkland & Ellis to explore strategic options, including bankruptcy, to address $1.5 billion in debt on its balance sheet. San Francisco-based Invitae, which has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, has started to shed some assets and cut costs, the company has said. Invitae’s decline parallels the collapse in value of its more popular industry peer 23andMe, a genetic testing company targeting consumers, that has seen its market cap shrink from $6 billion in 2021 to nearly zero. Invitae’s shares have tumbled to under $1 per share since 2020 when its stock reached over $50 and it had a market cap of over $7 billion. The company’s shares traded at 39 cents on Monday, following an 82% loss in value in the past 12 months. Invitae raised $1.2 billion in convertible debt from SoftBank in 2021, planning to use the proceeds primarily to acquire assets, the company has said. SoftBank remains an investor in the company.

Bankruptcy Judge Paul Warren said at a hearing last week that neither plan proposed in the Rochester Diocese bankruptcy can move forward for a vote yet, the Rochester Beacon reported. Instead, he set an Apr.16 date for the hearing to be continued. It would be the hearing’s second continuation and third session. Judge Warren had previously called off an early October hearing that was to have dealt with the rival plans. Accounting for much of the complication is that insurance companies balked at payment amounts survivors sought as compensation. By the end of last year only one insurer, the Continental Insurance Co., also known as CNA, had not come to terms. Instead it offered a rival plan of reorganization to a joint plan offered earlier by the diocese and a committee representing survivors. The survivors’ committee has made it clear that it sees CNA’s plan as an inadequate take-it-or- leave-it offer. The court’s go ahead on a vote on one or both plans after the April 16 date assumes the diocese and CNA will have met series of conditions the judge laid out, many having to do with more clearly explaining legal issues to the nearly 500 abuse survivors who account for most of the diocese’s creditors.

Digital Currency Group objected late Monday to the bankruptcy plan of its subsidiary Genesis Global Capital, saying that the crypto lender is proposing to pay its customers more than they are legally entitled to, Reuters reported. DCG argued that Genesis should pay its customers and creditors no more than the value the crypto assets had in January 2023, when Genesis filed for bankruptcy. Genesis has instead proposed giving its customers "additional payouts" to account for the rising price of assets like bitcoin and etherium, which violates U.S. bankruptcy law, DCG said. According to DCG's objection, assets like bitcoin have risen substantially in value since Genesis's January 2023 filing, potentially allowing Genesis to repay customers based on deflated January 2023 prices and still have assets left over to pay DCG. "DCG cannot support a plan that is unlawful and deprives DCG of its corporate governance rights," DCG said in a statement. Genesis is proceeding with a liquidation of its assets after failing to reach settlements with DCG, its former business partner Gemini, and regulators suing the three companies over their business practices. Genesis has since reached a more limited settlement with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commision, agreeing to pay the agency a $21 million if it has any assets left over after fully repaying its customers.