Local News in Brief : No on Horse Center Plan
- Share via
A City Council board rejected a plan for financial reorganization of the debt-ridden Los Angeles Equestrian Center Wednesday.
However, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court is scheduled to evaluate the same plan today and could force the city to accept it, city officials said.
After Wednesday’s 4-1 decision by the Board of Referred Powers, an attorney for Gibraltar Savings--which loaned the center $18 million during the last several years--said the firm plans to foreclose on the 70-acre Griffith Park facility Friday, taking over the lease until it can find a new operator. Gibraltar said horses boarded there would be cared for until a new operator is approved by the city.
The foreclosure would mean the end of a tumultuous era for the center’s operator, J. Albert Garcia, under whose leadership the center has amassed $27 million in debts.
Under Garcia’s bail-out plan, the center would have received a $12.3-million loan from Trafalgar Holdings Ltd., a Los Angeles financial firm. About $9 million of that loan would go to Gibraltar to settle the debt.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
