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The owner of casual Italian dining chain Romano’s Macaroni Grill filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday with a plan to slash it debt and to reorganize around its top restaurants, the Wall Street Journal reported. The chain’s parent company and a handful of affiliates, including investment vehicle Mac Acquisition LLC, filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. In court papers, Chief Executive Nishant Machado blamed the chain’s financial woes on the downturn in the casual dining industry as customers have shifted to cheaper, faster alternatives. The chain owns 93 restaurants in 23 states and employs approximately 4,600 people. It brought in revenue of approximately $230 million last year. RedRock Partners, LLC bought the chain for $8 million in 2015. Since then, Machado said, the company has struggled to service its debt. So far this year the chain has closed 37 unprofitable restaurants.

Hawaii’s Island Air, a small regional carrier that shuttles passengers across the state, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The airline sought chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu, beset by legal trouble that threatened to ground its aircraft. The company listed both total assets and liabilities as between $10 million and $50 million. Island Air was founded in 1980 as Princeville Airways, according to its website. Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison acquired the business in 2013 but sold a controlling stake in the airline three years later to two Honolulu-based investment funds. Island Air is seeking an emergency hearing in bankruptcy court as soon as Wednesday, court papers show, which it says is essential to ensuring its operations continue uninterrupted.

Toys “R” Us Inc., the retailer that filed for bankruptcy in North America, has been exploring options for its growing Asian business including a potential initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported today. The U.S. chain and its local joint venture partner, the billionaire Fung brothers, have been speaking with investment banks to study the feasibility of listing the Asian business on the Hong Kong bourse, according to the people. A deal could value the unit at as much as $2 billion. Toys “R” Us and some of its North American subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy last month, though its Asian unit wasn’t included in the proceedings. Deliberations are at an early stage, and Toys “R” Us hasn’t decided which path to pursue, the people said. Toys “R” Us owns about 85 percent of the Asian venture while Fung Group, the private holding company of Hong Kong businessmen Victor and William Fung, holds the remainder.

A failed deal to redevelop the former Charleston Naval Hospital pitched by Donald Trump Jr. lands in bankruptcy court this week and the settlement could cost county taxpayers $33 million to buy the building and 24 acres of land, the Associated Press reported on Friday. A U.S. bankruptcy judge in Charleston could decide today whether to let Charleston County officials buy the property rather than honor a long-term lease. The county had signed a 25-year lease to become anchor tenant in the project in which Trump Jr. was a minority investor. The lease carried an annual cost starting at $1.2 million. The county ended up pulling out of the deal in 2016, saying that the building wasn’t ready. The property was foreclosed upon last year.

Post-production house Point.360 has filed for chapter 11 protection to reduce costs and optimize operations, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal reported today. The publicly traded Los Angeles company will continue to operate as usual, fulfill customer orders and pay vendors. The company has facilities in Burbank for mastering, distribution, closed captioning and foreign language subtitling services. The bankruptcy restructuring announcement was made Wednesday by the company. Shares in Point.360 closed down a fraction of a cent yesterday to 5 cents on the over-the-counter market.

Breitburn Energy Partners LP detailed plans at a court hearing yesterday to exit bankruptcy by transferring the oil-and-gas producer’s assets to creditors, but opponents pressed for an auction of main reserves to generate more money, Reuters reported. Breitburn filed for chapter 11 protection in May 2016, one of more than 100 energy companies that sought court protection from creditors after oil prices crashed from more than $100 a barrel in 2014. Yesterday it proposed splitting into two companies, with one owning its prized assets in the Permian Basin in Texas and the other owning its reserves in California, the Rocky Mountains, U.S. Midwest and U.S. Southeast. Holders of Breitburn’s unsecured bonds would be given the opportunity to buy their share of the Permian company’s stock, valued at $775 million, in what is known as a rights offering. The stock sale would be guaranteed or backstopped by a group of creditors led by the investment firms Elliott Management Corp and W.L. Ross & Co, founded by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The bondholders guaranteeing the stock sale would receive the opportunity to buy at least 40 percent of the stock and would receive additional stock as a fee. Read more. 

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Efforts to demolish a north Peoria, Ariz., eyesore ground to a halt after the company that once planned to build the city's first hospital filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 3, AZCentral.com reported yesterday. Peoria was weeks away from demolishing the partially built hospital when Peoria Regional Medical Center LLC filed for chapter 11 protection. The project had sat inactive for five years, the two-story rusted steel skeleton towering above Lake Pleasant Parkway and surrounding homes in the rapidly growing area. The $30 million hospital had broken ground in 2011, but work stopped a year later due to lack of financial backing. The city attorney advised staff to hold off on demolition until the court makes a decision on the bankruptcy claim. There is no timeline for when that will occur.In early 2016, the Peoria Police Department's code enforcement division ordered the property owners to fix code violations such as overgrown weeds and unsecured fencing. The owners fixed the violations and met with Peoria's Economic Development Department to say they were still looking for funding to finish the project, said Jay Davies, deputy director of the Peoria Police Department. But they never followed up with a timeline, he said.