After wresting control of an international network of marine tourist attractions, the new owners of the Miami Seaquarium are asking permission to put all of the Dolphin Company businesses up for sale, according to court papers filed Friday.
Fearing that legal chaos may have contributed to the death of a dolphin named Samira at Panama City’s Gulf World Marine Park, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein held the former CEO, Eduardo Albor, in contempt of court on June 5. The judge threatened fines of $10,000 a day if he failed to cooperate with the new management team led by Steven Strom and Robert Wagstaff. She found that Albor had interfered with the new administration.
“We lost a dolphin, and I don’t want my delay to create that situation again,” Silverstein said at a June 2 hearing. “Samira, to the extent we could have saved her because of communication, it’s on all of us,” the judge said.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced last month that he was opening a criminal investigation into the Gulf World attraction as well as the parent company.
James Moon, an attorney for Albor, did not respond to a message seeking comment or whether Albor would appeal Silverstein’s order. Albor has challenged his ouster as CEO in Mexican courts, but Judge Silverstein said no court in that country has agreed with him so far.
The new management team on Friday asked the judge for permission to hire two different firms to split the network of companies up and start an auction process. The Dolphin Group operates 30 attractions in eight countries.
READ MORE: A bankruptcy battle is clouding the future of Miami’s Seaquarium. It’s not clear who’s in charge
“The debtors have formed an initial view as to which of their properties fall into ‘going concern’ and ‘real estate’ categories,’” wrote Robert Wagstaff, the chief restructuring officer. “In order to maximize the pool of suitors for these properties, the debtors expect these properties to be marketed.”
The filing indicated that the Gulf World property would not continue as a going concern and that an alternative use would be found — but it omitted a category for the Miami Seaquarium, once the home of TV’s “Flipper” show in the 1960s.
Miami-Dade County has an eviction proceeding pending, and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has said she wants to close the attraction and use the County-owned property for something else. The eviction case was put on hold because of the bankruptcy.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose district includes the Seaquarium, said there have been discussions with the new owners but didn’t indicate that any resolution was in the immediate offing. She said the County has been trying to let the new owners know that the asset — the lease of the Seaquarium property on Virginia Key — will be diminished by the significant work any park operator would have to achieve to meet lease conditions.
“We are holding firm to our lease requirements,” Regalado told the Independent. “We don’t want this to be valued incorrectly,” she said, noting that the property cannot be turned into residences or used for a purpose that violates use restrictions. “There are limitations.”
The court filing indicated that Keen-Summit Capital Partners of New York, a firm that specializes in bankruptcy property transactions, would manage the auction process. For properties that can be sold as “going concerns,” the new management team is seeking court approval to hire a New York investment banking firm, Greenhill & Company, to look for potential suitors.
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
