Playland Park Revival Deal May Get Bankruptcy Court Scrutiny

(Bloomberg) -- An entity aiming to revitalize the Playland Park amusement center in suburban New York has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Westchester County said a contract with the company is dead.

Standard Amusements LLC, controlled by Standard General co-founder Nicholas Singer, listed assets up to $500,000 and liabilities up to $1 million in its petition filed in the Southern District of New York. The company’s principal asset is a contract with Westchester County, which was supposed to allow it to take control of the park, located in Rye on the Long Island Sound.

County Executive George Latimer this year moved to terminate the contract -- signed under a previous administration -- arguing that Standard Amusements breached the agreement. Singer said in a court declaration that the county has no basis to kill the agreement and that he plans to pursue the execution of the contract during bankruptcy.

The 280-acre park, which according to its website has been in operation since 1928, has languished in recent years, posting millions in losses. Playland’s attendance dropped from about 1 million visitors in 2005 to 615,000 in 2009, according to the declaration.

Standard Amusements was founded in 2011 for the sole purpose of managing and operating Playland. It entered a contract with the county in 2015 that called for a total of $27.75 million in investments from the company.

“Acting on its repeated threats to walk away from the agreement, the county has willfully breached its performance obligations,” Singer said in the declaration. Without the contract, Standard Amusements “would lose access to its only source of future revenue and its rights under a contract it negotiated and has performed in good faith,” he said.

Singer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Westchester County did not comment for this story, but said in a separate statement its legal team will continue to address the matter.

Roller Coaster

Singer, who still owns his childhood home in Harrison, New York and now lives in Miami, said Playland was for many years the ``center of the universe'' for him and his family. They went to the amusement park, spent beach days there and ice skated in the winter, according to the declaration.

Prior to his involvement with Standard Amusements, Singer co-founded Cyrus Capital Partners LP and Standard General, where he focused on distressed assets. His work investing in amusement parks while at Standard General, combined with a background in distressed assets and his personal history with the park is what led him to form Standard Amusements, he said in the declaration.

The 30-year deal inked with Westchester County provides for both Standard Amusements and the county to invest in Playland over time, with Standard assuming control of the park once a specific investment threshold was crossed. After that, the county would receive annual fees and a cut of the profits from Playland. But the investment threshold was never reached, and the park never changed hands.

Westchester County said in a press release in April its decision to terminate the deal is rooted in Standard Amusement breaching the contract, including a refusal to submit to an audit and improperly booking millions of dollars in expenditures as capital investment.

“This agreement has Westchester taxpayers on the hook for $125 million dollars with Standard committed for $27.5 million,” County Executive Latimer said in the statement. “The County’s relationship with Standard Amusements must come to a close. We cannot have confidence in Standard Amusements based on its actions.”

The case is: Standard Amusements LLC, 19-23061-rdd, U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Southern District of New York (White Plains)

--With assistance from Martin Z. Braun.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hill in New York at jhill273@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rick Green at rgreen18@bloomberg.net, Christopher DeReza, Nikolaj Gammeltoft

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.