Bankruptcy

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- Cimm's Inc., the nation's largest Burger King franchises, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an attempt to restructure its debts, officials said. The bankruptcy claim filed last month raises the question of whether the Glendale-based business will fulfil its $1-million pledge to Glendale Community College's science center. School officials on Wednesday said the bankruptcy should not affect the pledge. Brothers Lawrence and Ralph Cimmarusti run Cimm's Inc., which operates 130 Burger King restaurants in California, as well as four other states.

DOWNTOWN — Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday, a development that could endanger its two Glendale dealerships if the company decides to trim its stock of car lots nationwide, analysts and business leaders said. The Detroit-based automaker, famous for its popularization of the minivan, made the filing while announcing a deal that would give Italian car brand Fiat a 20% stake in the company, with the prospect of increasing its share to 35%. The Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Assn.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- Nigol Manoukian is not happy to see the bankruptcy-reform movement gathering momentum in Congress. "It worries me," said the Glendale attorney who started taking bankruptcy cases about four years ago. "It may reduce the amount of cases that may be coming into my office." A bill that would make it tougher for people to have all their debts forgiven was recently approved by the House and sent to the Senate. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale)

Pleasant Care Corp., a La Cañada-based company, filed for bankruptcy late last month in the midst of elder abuse and wrongful death allegations related to its operations. Pleasant Care CEO Emmanuel I. Bernabe owns or has interest in more than 30 nursing homes throughout California. Numerous attempts to contact him for this article were unsuccessful. The company has a history of lawsuits and fines against a number of its facilities. A year ago the company pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of elder abuse and agreed to pay $1.35 million to the state to resolve a suit that alleged negligent care.

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge this week extended a deadline for the debt-ridden operator of the Burbank Town Center and Glendale Galleria to finalize plans to emerge from Chapter 11 protection, likely delaying any deal, experts said. General Growth Properties Inc., of Chicago, which owns the Galleria and runs the local malls, will have until Sept. 15 to finalize its plans as it also considers at least four potential suitors, the company said. News of the extension and the company’s annual financial results this week boosted stocks Friday, the first day the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange since it filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2009 in what experts considered the largest real estate failure in national history.

Some of California’s biggest tax scofflaws live or work in Glendale, La Crescenta and Burbank, racking up millions in unpaid taxes, according to the state. The Franchise Tax Board and state Board of Equalization normally protect the privacy of taxpayer information, but in an effort to recover more overdue funds, a 2006 law requires the agencies to disclose the names of the 250 biggest scofflaws. The taxpayers are notified 30 days before their names are to be published. The Franchise Tax Board’s annual list of those who owe the most income tax, released April 14, includes one Glendale doctor and a La Crescenta business.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Scholars Armenian School and Arts Center has continued running, uninterrupted, after it filed for bankruptcy and made good on a $123,000 payment. Some worried parents, after hearing that the school had not paid nearly $200,000 in rent, withdrew from plans to send their children to the school in the fall. But Scholars has never been in serious danger of closing, principal and owner Anahit Grigoryan said. Grigoryan has poured more than $1 million of her own assets into renovating the building at 1021 Grandview Ave. and has been able to keep her operation growing using funds from colleagues in Armenia, she said.

Tim Willert DOWNTOWN -- A Calabasas-based children's retailer has agreed to acquire the struggling parent company of Brand Boulevard educational toy store Zany Brainy. The Right Start Inc., a specialty retailer of developmental, educational and care products for infants and children through 4, overbid a Los Angeles-based private investment firm in U.S. Bankruptcy court, a Zany Brainy spokeswoman said Friday. The company will acquire substantially all of Zany Brainy's assets, including $115 million in cash, inventory and accounts receivable for $11.7 million in cash, $85 million in the assumption of liabilities and the issuance of 1.1 million shares of The Right Start common stock, said Jerry R. Welch, The Right Start's chairman and chief executive officer.

General Growth Properties Inc., which owns the Glendale Galleria and operates the Burbank Town Center, filed a plan Wednesday in bankruptcy court to restructure terms for $9.7 billion in secured mortgage loans in the hopes of relieving its debt obligations. The Chicago-based firm, which owns more than 200 malls nationwide, filed for bankruptcy protection in April and has tried to alleviate its debt obligations, and those related to 158 regional shopping malls, by the end of the year.

Jeffrey A. Kopczynski Local elections present an opportunity for residents of Glendale to rededicate themselves to the betterment of the community by voting for the City Council candidate of their choice. Unanimous agreement on all issues is not likely or expected. So to disagree or challenge a candidate on the issues is a natural element in an election. But I am appalled and disappointed to read the personal attack toward a candidate, especially when it is filled with inaccuracies.

The contentious campaign for the 43rd Assembly District seat between incumbent Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) and Republican Glendale school board member Greg Krikorian was reflected in voter sentiment at the polls Tuesday. For a race in which the two campaigns pointed fingers and made accusations to the very end, perhaps it wasn't surprising that voters harbored some of that tartness in the voting booth. Many referred to the deluge of campaign materials as having had an impact on their decision-making.

Greg Krikorian, a Glendale school board member challenging Assemblyman Mike Gatto in the 43rd district, defended his financial record Tuesday, calling the fact that he and his wife had to get through bankruptcy protection after incurring more than $49,000 in credit card debt a “little minor incident.” His comments during a public school board meeting came three weeks after the News-Press reported that he and his wife, Christine, emerged from...

The Republican candidate in the 43rd Assembly District who has touted himself as a “business conservative” extinguished more than $49,000 in credit card debt after he and his wife emerged from Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, court records show. Candidate Greg Krikorian's wife, Christine, filed for bankruptcy in March 2011. He was added to the case as a co-debtor a month later, after the bankruptcy court noted that Christine had failed to list him in her filing as her husband and as a source of income.

When the Pasadena Playhouse filed for bankruptcy in 2010, closing its doors and some $2.3 million in debt, a leading player in its recovery and reopening later that year was Stephen Eich, the respected former managing director of both Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the Geffen Playhouse. Eich took on the position of executive director at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2009 to help guide the venerable theater back to solvency. Now, less than three years later, he is leaving that position to pursue projects of his own, he said.

A defunct nonprofit entangled in financial issues that promised to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars it owed the city of Glendale has filed for bankruptcy, a move that may stall those plans. New Horizons Family Center filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Oct. 25, according to court records. The nonprofit faces liens, legal issues and a lengthy list of creditors. “Obviously it puts taxpayers' money at risk, so I'm concerned about that,” said Councilman Ara Najarian, who has long complained about city oversight of New Horizons.

Some of California’s biggest tax scofflaws live or work in Glendale, La Crescenta and Burbank, racking up millions in unpaid taxes, according to the state. The Franchise Tax Board and state Board of Equalization normally protect the privacy of taxpayer information, but in an effort to recover more overdue funds, a 2006 law requires the agencies to disclose the names of the 250 biggest scofflaws. The taxpayers are notified 30 days before their names are to be published. The Franchise Tax Board’s annual list of those who owe the most income tax, released April 14, includes one Glendale doctor and a La Crescenta business.

The Borders bookstore in Glendale will close by April as part of the bankruptcy plan the Michigan-based retailer unveiled Wednesday. The company is closing 200 underperforming stores across the country, including locations in Pasadena, Sherman Oaks and Los Angeles. The Glendale Borders is in the heart of the city’s busiest commercial district, at the corner of Brand Boulevard and Broadway. For the past three years it has had competition from the Barnes & Noble bookstore inside the nearby Americana at Brand.

The owner of the Glendale Galleria emerged from bankruptcy protection Tuesday with a new operating plan that officials said would have little immediate impact on local consumers. A spokeswoman for the Galleria's owner, Chicago-based General Growth Properties, said there were no immediate plans for changes at the Glendale mega-mall. General Growth owns or operates more than 200 malls. Under the plan, the company restructured roughly $15 billion of project-level debt, and obtained $6.8 billion in new capital, according to an announcement.

The owner of the Glendale Galleria plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as two companies in October, officials announced Monday. General Growth Properties Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last year, also announced that it had received assurances for as much as $8.5 billion in new capital, which would pay its debts in full. Out of the two-firm split, one called the "New GGP," would continue to own and operate shopping malls. The other, Spinco, would oversee master-planned and mixed-use communities, as well as mall development projects.

An aggressive bidding war for the operator of the Burbank Town Center and Glendale Galleria may be in the works after the company filed a reorganization plan last week in bankruptcy court, a move that has brought the local malls a step closer to full health, experts said. The plan from General Growth Properties Inc. would allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as two independent companies with the backing of $6.55 billion from three investors, the firm said. But more than establishing its own restructuring plan, the filing sets the stage for other firms, like rival Simon Properties Inc., to make takeover bids.