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Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Holdings LLC, a theater chain offering moviegoers seat-side food service, beer and themed cocktails, has filed for bankruptcy while planning to sell the business to Fortress Investment Group LLC and other investors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Austin, Texas-based Alamo became the latest theater business forced into chapter 11 as a result of seismic changes to the movie industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cinemas across the U.S. either remain closed or are operating at reduced capacity while major film studios either delay or bypass theater releases in favor of streaming services. Alamo, which operates 41 company-owned and franchised cinemas, temporarily shut its locations last March and put in place a number of cost-saving measures to withstand the pandemic, including furloughing most staff. The company came up with ways to generate revenue as well, including renting out theaters for private screenings and launched a video-on-demand platform called “Alamo On Demand.” Despite these steps, a cash crunch continued throughout 2020 amid unprecedented industry conditions, Alamo Chief Financial Officer Matthew Vonderahe said in a declaration filed yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

A federal bankruptcy court judge has approved the sale of a century-old amusement park in northwestern Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported. Pittsburgh-based U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jeffrey Deller yesterday approved the sale of Conneaut Lake Park to Keldon Holdings LLC for a cash price of $1.2 million. The sale includes the amusement park and its rides, including the historic Blue Streak roller coaster, as well as the water park, the beach area, Hotel Conneaut, a campground and active leases on assets.

AMC Entertainment Holdings said that it has approved millions in bonuses to its top executives and eligible employees as a means to preserve stockholder value during the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron would receive $3.75 million as bonus, while other top executives are entitled to bonuses of $173,000 to $507,000. The move comes at a time when cinema chains like AMC have taken a blow due to coronavirus-led restrictions that caused delays in film releases. The company staved off bankruptcy through a debt restructuring deal last year. Shares of the Leawood, Kansas-based company were also one of the “stonks” whose wild ride captivated investors several weeks ago and during which its share price surged more than 860% compared with the beginning of the year, at its highest.

The Federal Reserve and other bank regulators are flashing a new warning sign for the U.S. economy: Businesses ravaged by Covid-19 are sitting on $1 trillion of debt and a high percentage of it is at risk of going bust, Bloomberg News reported. Watchdogs flagged 29.2% of complex corporate lending as troubled in 2020, up from 13.5% in 2019, according to a report released yesterday by the Fed and other agencies. Real estate, entertainment, transportation, oil and gas, and retail were cited as particular problem areas. A “disproportionate share” of the riskiest loans were held by nonbanks, such as investment funds that engage in leveraged lending, insurers and pension funds, the regulators added. “While risk has increased, many agent banks have strengthened their risk management systems since the prior downturn and are better equipped to measure and mitigate risks associated with loans in the current environment,” the Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a statement that accompanied the release of their Shared National Credit Review. Still, banks’ share of the weakest loans has also been rising, with some of their holdings -- particularly those associated with oil and gas -- facing credit downgrades during the pandemic, the report found. Banks’ percentage of borrowings deemed below the standards preferred by regulators increased to 45% from 35% a year earlier. For their report, the Fed and other agencies evaluated $5.1 trillion in complex lending involving multiple firms, with half of it representing leveraged loans. Real estate, entertainment, transportation, oil and gas, and retail represented 21.6% of the lending that the regulators examined. The 29.2% of “non-pass loans” highlighted in the report represent those the agencies categorize as meriting “special mention,” being substandard or at risk of triggering losses for lenders. During the pandemic, the debt load involving leveraged lending -- borrowings by the riskiest companies -- has been on the upswing. In so-called syndicated loans backing U.S. acquisitions, leverage surged to at least a five-year high in the fourth quarter, according to Covenant Review.

The Williamsburg Hotel in Brooklyn filed for bankruptcy as the effects from the pandemic continue to roll through the hospitality industry, Bloomberg News reported. 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC, the entity that owns the hotel backed by Heritage Equity Partners, listed assets and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million in its chapter 11 petition filed in White Plains, New York. The boutique hotel is located in an area of Brooklyn which surged in popularity and rapidly gentrified over the last decade, offering views of Manhattan and some of the best restaurants and shopping in the borough. Benefit Street Partners, the credit firm owned by Franklin Templeton, is one of its largest creditors with a $68 million disputed claim, according to bankruptcy papers. The Williamsburg Hotel is the latest Heritage property to restructure, with 232 Seigel Acquisition LLC, a hotel development in Bushwick, seeking bankruptcy last year. Heritage Equity Partners, led by Toby Moskovits, owns a mix of residential and office projects in Brooklyn.

The developer of an unfinished luxury hotel that sought to capitalize on the popularity of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is fighting in bankruptcy with a lender that has said the project was grossly mismanaged, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Glenroy Coachella LLC, the company behind the half-built hotel, said in court papers Friday that it filed an emergency bankruptcy to prevent lender Calmwater Asset Management LLC from moving forward with a foreclosure sale of the project’s land in Coachella, Calif. Monday’s chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles marked the latest twist in litigation embroiling the project, pitched as “an upscale and modern oasis in the heart of the Coachella valley.” Operating under the Hotel Indigo banner, the finished hotel would include a 10,000 square-foot pool, retail stores, spa and other luxury amenities. An investment fund managed by Calmwater has accused Stuart Rubin, a real-estate investor and manager of Glenroy Coachella, of using a false budget to obtain a $24.4 million construction loan. Calmwater has accused Mr. Rubin of underreporting the true cost of building the hotel by about $20 million. Rubin and lawyers for Glenroy Coachella and Calmwater didn’t immediately return messages Friday seeking comment. Rubin has disputed Calmwater’s allegations. Project investor Gary Stiffelman has also accused Mr. Rubin of mismanaging the project, saying he diverted project funds for his personal use, including to cover the cost of a Bentley lease, according to court papers.

Knotel Inc. has struck a deal with unsecured creditors that will give potential bidders more time to submit offers to acquire the office-space startup’s assets out of bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Knotel agreed to push back to March 12 the deadline for submitting asset bids, lawyers for the company and a committee representing unsecured creditors said yesterday during a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The committee includes food-delivery startup DoorDash Inc., technology company Neustar Inc. and landlords. The agreement resolved challenges the committee raised over the tight sales timeline Knotel is pursuing. Knotel originally floated a Feb. 28 bid deadline, which would be about a month after the company filed for bankruptcy. A subsidiary of real-estate services firm Newmark Group Inc. has made an offer to acquire Knotel’s assets in exchange for forgiving up to $70 million in company debt. The bid from the Newmark Group subsidiary, Digiatech LLC, will set the floor for any additional offers Knotel receives in the next few weeks.

In an email, the board president of the Continental Country Club HOA in Arizona said that the organization is facing several financial challenges, including the issue over Lake Elaine, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. Jon Held, the president of the association’s board of directors, said the filing will not impact day-to-day operations of the country club, including the public golf course and the Oakmont Restaurant, and won't mean any layoffs. “This filing allows Continental and its homeowners the chance for a fresh start so we can best address several issues,” Held said. “In some cases, these problems predate the current board by years, if not decades. For the good of our residents and those who enjoy our facilities, it was time to take action.” In a media release, the HOA board seemed to attribute most of their problems to recent legal action over Lake Elaine, a man-made lake within the country club that has been the center of controversy for years. First used to store water for the golf course, Lake Elaine is now only aesthetic, but has been leaking water for decades. For every four gallons of water that is pumped into the lake each day, three gallons are lost to seepage into the ground. In 1988, a group of lakeside homeowners filed a class action lawsuit against the HOA that mandated that the HOA should keep the lake full, but so far, no significant repairs to stop seepage have moved forward. In 2017, residents came back and asked the court to hold the HOA in contempt for not following through on its mandate to keep the lake full.

The owner of a lavish hotel development near the site of Coachella, the famous California music festival, has filed for bankruptcy after lawsuits and delays stymied its plans, Bloomberg News reported. Glenroy Coachella LLC, which owns the Hotel Indigo development, sought chapter 11 protection yesterday in Los Angeles, according to a bankruptcy petition. The entity listed assets of $50 million to $100 million and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million. The bankruptcy filing comes after Stuart Rubin, manager of the project, faced a lawsuit from his business partner, Gary Stiffelman, for $50 million amid allegations of “incompetence and fraud,” according to the Palm Springs Desert Sun. The lawsuit alleged that the development spent two separate budgets of $25 million. Hotel Indigo, a division of InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, doesn’t list the Coachella location among its current properties. Construction on the project began in early 2017 under the guidance of Rubin’s son, Joseph, and was met with delays almost immediately, according to the Stiffelman lawsuit. The project was supposed to be completed in time for the 2018 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, according to the lawsuit. Hotel Indigo Coachella was billed as a luxe, 35-acre resort close to the festival grounds, complete with a DJ stage, catwalk, 10,000-square-foot (3,049 square meter) pool, casitas and 250 guest rooms, according to a 2018 article from the Los Angeles Times.

Mexico’s second-largest movie theater chain, Grupo Cinemex SA, is closing its cinemas indefinitely and is working with banks to restructure at least $230 million in debt, Bloomberg News reported. Cinemex, owned by the family that controls copper miner Grupo Mexico, is closing in on a deal with banks including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, HSBC Holdings Plc, Banco Santander SA and Bank of Nova Scotia. To ease its cash burn, Cinemex decided to shut 145 cinemas outside the capital area until Hollywood resumes major film releases and it’s clear the company can operate without severe restrictions. The chain’s debt includes a 4.05 billion peso ($202.6 million) term loan and a 640 million peso term loan, both due March 2023. After the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered theaters around the world last year, Cinemex pumped cash into its business to keep operating and kept up interest payments even as new releases from Hollywood petered out. The company’s U.S. unit, Cinemex Holdings USA Inc., filed for bankruptcy last year and emerged after renegotiating certain leases.