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The Bishop’s Lodge hotel in Santa Fe, N.M., part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, filed for bankruptcy Monday blaming mismanagement and construction delays amid a feud between the luxury resort’s owners, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The resort, which has been adding guest rooms and new amenities like horseback trail-riding and trout fishing, filed a chapter 11 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., seeking to restructure close to $80 million in debt. Owned by private investors and run by high-end resort manager Auberge Resorts LLC, Bishop’s Lodge enters bankruptcy with the support of most of its owners and an agreement to transfer a 100% stake to a senior lender in exchange for roughly $34 million in debt forgiveness. Construction on the resort was originally scheduled for completion in mid-2018, though after a series of delays it was only able to initiate a “soft reopening” on July 1. HRV Santa Fe LLC, a private company and stakeholder in the resort, previously served as manager. HRV hired different general contractors to renovate the property but dismissed them, causing delays and cost overruns, according to a declaration filed to the court by Michael Norvet, president of the holding company that owns the resort.

Tix Corp. filed for bankruptcy after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Las Vegas discount ticket seller to close its Tix4Tonight-branded booths on the Strip and its online ticket-sales operations for more than a year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company filed yesterday for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas, saying that it would sell substantially all its assets. Chief Executive Mitch Francis has expressed an interest in buying the company out of bankruptcy, according to court papers filed by Kimberly Simon, Tix’s chief operating officer. Founded in 1993, the company sells tickets to shows, tours and attractions out of three booths operating on the Las Vegas Strip, according to court filings. The company said it was forced to close its ticket booths in March 2020, when the pandemic shut down all restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment venues in the city, and lay off its employees. Even after reopening the booths in June 2021, Tix continued to struggle financially, in part because as shows and tours resumed, high demand meant there were fewer tickets available for discounters, Simon’s filing said. Tix said that it expects normal operations to continue without affecting customers.

The Delta strain is dealing a setback to the convention industry’s fragile recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Some big gatherings are being shut down as the number of coronavirus cases surges again, dealing a fresh hit to a business that was already struggling to revive from the era of social distancing and working from home. The New York International Automobile Show was canceled this month for the second year in a row because of concerns over the pandemic. In Florida, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers and the Global Surgical Conference called off their events, with organizers of the later, citing the “dramatic surge” in the state’s cases. “It is very hard to pull a group of people and make sure that they are all comfortable in meeting together,” S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Safina Ali said in an interview. “To an extent, they might not even get back to pre-Covid” levels, she said, referring to convention centers. Bond-financed convention centers have seen their businesses dry up since the pandemic struck the U.S. in early 2020. The Center for Exhibition and Industry Research reported that the industry has shriveled to $24 billion, down $77 billion from 2019.

A former Vermont ski resort president pleaded guilty Friday to providing false documents during a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport using tens of millions of dollars in foreign investors’ money, the Associated Press reported. In exchange for the guilty plea from William Stenger, the former president of Jay Peak Resort, the federal government dropped nine other fraud charges. The 72-year-old faces up to five years in prison. Stenger’s lawyer Brooks McArthur said after the hearing that Miami businessman Ariel Quiros, the former owner of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain Resort, and his advisor William Kelly, were career con men and fraudsters who took advantage of Stenger, who said he had spent his life trying to improve the economic conditions in the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont. In 2019, Quiros, Stenger and Kelly were indicted criminally over a failed plan to build the biotechnology plant in Newport, Vermont, using millions raised through the EB-5 program. The visa program encourages foreigners to invest in U.S. projects that create jobs in exchange for a chance to earn permanent U.S. residency. The AnC-Bio project was designed to raise $110 million from 220 immigrant investors to construct and operate the biotechnology facility, according to proceedings and documents. There were about 800 investors in a total of eight projects, which brought the promise of jobs to the Northeast Kingdom. The remote area has some of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

The concert industry had hoped that this summer would mark its high-decibel rebound after being shut down for more than a year by the pandemic. It started promisingly, with restrictions being eased and fans snapping up tickets, but as the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has accelerated in recent weeks, an ominous cancellation blotter has begun to build up, the New York Times reported. Foo Fighters and Fall Out Boy have missed high-profile shows. Stevie Nicks and Limp Bizkit have scuttled tours. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, planned for October, was canceled amid high infection rates in Louisiana. The pileup of bad news, along with fearful chatter among artists and touring workers on industry back channels, has led to what many in the business describe as a confusing and even chaotic situation over whether — and how — to proceed. For those moving forward, a loose consensus has taken shape that fans must provide proof of vaccination, or at least a negative test. But anecdotal reports suggest that the rigor of vaccine checks can be lacking, and the question of who bears responsibility for setting and enforcing those rules — especially when governments in major markets like Texas and Florida oppose such mandates — remains a matter of debate.

A former Vermont ski resort president has reached a plea deal over a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport, Vt., using tens of millions of dollars in foreign investors’ money, the Associated Press reported. William Stenger, the former president of Jay Peak Resort, has agreed to plead guilty to providing false statements and faces up to five years in prison, according to the deal filed in court on Wednesday. Nine other charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement. Stenger is due in court on Friday. Stenger was expected to go on trial in October and is the third man in the case to reach a plea deal. “The Jay Peak developers, including Mr. Stenger, routinely provided the State of Vermont false, misleading, and fraudulent information throughout the course of our dealings. I am pleased Mr. Stenger has taken responsibility for similar deceptive statements to the U.S. government,” said Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. Miami businessman Ariel Quiros, the former owner of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain ski resorts in northern Vermont, changed his plea to guilty last August on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and the concealment of material information. Nine other charges were dropped. Quiros, Stenger and William Kelly, an advisor to Quiros, were indicted over a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport using millions raised through the EB-5 visa program, which encourages foreigners to invest in U.S. projects that create jobs in exchange for a chance to earn permanent U.S. residency. The AnC-Bio project was designed to raise $110 million from 220 immigrant investors to construct and operate the biotechnology facility, according to proceedings and documents. The investors could qualify for permanent resident status by investing $500,000 in an approved commercial enterprise. About 169 investors invested about $85 million in the project, in addition to paying $8 million in “administrative fees,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.