24 Hour Fitness Can Access Final $200M In Ch. 11 Loan

Law360 (July 31, 2020) Partly shuttered and bankrupt gym chain 24 Hour Fitness got a Delaware judge's nod to tap into the final $200 million of its Chapter 11 financing loan on Friday, in part after proposing a trio of compromise options for dozens of restive landlords left unpaid since the case began in June. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens approved the final installment of the company's overall $250 million debtor-in-possession loan, after saying the court had been comforted by concessions made to landlords and assurances that the case would remain solvent until its proposed year-end confirmation exit. Ivan M. Gold of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, counsel to Weingarten Realty Investors and other landlords, told Judge Owens that the proposal provided "optionality" while also recognizing the interests of landlords. "This case, at least for the next few weeks, is more about epidemiology and politics than implementing a business plan," Gold said. "This is difficult, imperfect, rough justice," he added later. "We're creating something that I would say, in our collective experience, we haven't seen before," Gold said. "That doesn't make it bad at all, but this is new and it takes a while to explain it to a client." Read More (subscription required)