This park can’t catch a break! It seems the owners of Freestyle Music Park, once known as Hard Rock Park, are having difficulty paying over $500,000 in debt owed to vendors of some of the park’s attractions. According to the Sun News:
“An attorney for FPI MB Entertainment, which owns Freestyle Music Park, has asked a Delaware judge to give the park more time to pay off the $570,000 in debt that belonged to the former owners of Hard Rock Park.
The response, filed Thursday, came less than a month after Alfred Giuliano, a trustee for Hard Rock Park, filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, stating that the FPI MBE officials agreed to pay the amounts when they purchased the park in February.
Thursday was the deadline for FPI MBE officials to respond before the motion is considered at a hearing scheduled for Jan. 14 in the bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del.
In the response, FPI MBE attorney Tobey Daluz wrote that the company intends to comply with the payment provisions, but that “given the difficult operating conditions caused in part by our weak local, state and national economy, FPI has been unable to make the cure payments as planned,” according to court documents.
The response goes on to say that the park was open for less than four months in 2009 and that “until the park reopens or until such time that additional funds are made available, FPI has no funds or income source to satisfy the cure payments.”
Daluz states that FPI MBE is in negotiations with new investors and that “a reasonable possibility exists for the infusion of capital at some point in the future.” Freestyle Music Park officials say that a transaction between the park owners and investors is scheduled to take place in mid- to late January.
Once those investors are on board, the park will have enough money to pay the debt, Daluz said in the response.
The original motion states that in March, the court entered an order in which the purchaser of Hard Rock Park, FPI MBE, was obligated to pay $1.2 million to Tetra Financial Group and $507,454.56 to Data Sales Co.
Freestyle paid the $800,000 that was owed at the time of the lease for Tetra, but did not pay any of the $100,000 monthly payments that were owed between July 1 and Oct. 1, according to court documents. The park also made the initial payment of $84,575.76 to Data Sales Co. and three monthly installments of the same amount, but has not made the final two payments, leaving a total of $169,151.52 unpaid.
Many businesses, entertainers and vendors are still waiting on payment from the park’s 2009 debut season. Nine lawsuits and more than a dozen mechanic’s liens have been filed against the park owners for unpaid services and supplies since July.
FPI MBE bought the former Hard Rock Park out of bankruptcy last year for $25 million. It re-themed the 55-acre park, created a children’s section and added new rides before it opened Memorial Day weekend.
Freestyle Music Park closed its debut season on Sept. 23 and is tentatively scheduled to open March 11.”
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