Yumkas, Vidmar, & Sweeney in the News...
Tax Surprises Can Follow When Payroll Firms Implode
An estimated four in 10 business owners farm out management of their payrolls. But many, including Kerry Koletar of Baltimore, are coming face to face with a downside of that strategy. (full article)
Payroll company that closed doors files for bankruptcy
A Bel Air payroll company accused of withholding but not paying its clients' taxes has filed for bankruptcy, and those creditors who said they were duped by Accupay hope they're now one step closer to a conclusion. (full article)
Accupay owner faces angry clients at bankruptcy hearing
The owner of Bel Air payroll processing company Accupay, which is accused of ripping off its clients, was in federal court in Baltimore on Tuesday for a bankruptcy hearing. (full article)
Bel Air payroll company AccuPay files for bankruptcy protection
A Bel Air payroll company under investigation for allegedly not forwarding clients' tax payments to tax collectors has filed for bankruptcy. (full article)
Wisp Emerges from Bankruptcy
A downturn in the real estate market forced Wisp Resort to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Fall of 2011, but thanks to a new ownership structure, the Maryland ski area has emerged from bankruptcy and is charging forward. (full article)
Wisp Emerges from Bankruptcy Under New Operator
After 14 months in Chapter 11, Wisp Resort has emerged from bankruptcy protection with a new ownership structure and an infusion of capital and experience. (full article)
Maryland's Wisp Acquired Out Of Bankruptcy; Plans To Open Dec. 14
A bankruptcy court judge in Greenbelt, Md., approved the sale of Wisp, the state's only ski resort, for $23.5 million. The buyer was Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT) Ski Properties. Wisp plans a Dec. 14 opening. (full article)
Judge OKs sale of Wisp resort to Kansas group
A bankruptcy court judge has approved the sale of Maryland's only ski resort to a unit of a Kansas City-based real-estate investment trust for $23.5 million. (full article)
Carr Hospitality this week assured members of the Waterfront Plan Work
Group that it is a "well-capitalized" company after allegations were made that the firm was linked to bankrupt properties.Carr Hospitality this week assured members of the Waterfront Plan Work Group that it is a "well-capitalized" company after allegations were made that the firm was linked to bankrupt properties. ( full article)
Wisp Resort owners file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
The owners of a ski resort near Deep Creek Lake have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection while they try to resolve financial difficulties related to another business.
DC Development LLC, which owns Wisp Resort in Garrett County, announced the filing Sunday. ( full article)
Wisp Resort's fortunes have gone downhill
Maryland's only ski resort has fallen victim to the collapse of the real estate market, as its owners filed for bankruptcy on Saturday after defaulting on a $23.5 million loan.
D.C. Development of McHenry, owner of Wisp Resort in Garrett County, and related companies filed the Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt, citing $50 million to $100 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in debts. ( full article)
Bankruptcy Law: Five Things Every Lawyer Should Know
by Lisa Yonka Stevens, Esquire
The Advocate, Young Lawyers Section-Maryland State Bar Association, Volume 26, Number 2, Winter 2010 (full article)
Kimpton buying part of B&O Building
Transaction will keep Hotel Monaco Baltimore and B&O American Brasserie open
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the management company for the 202-room Hotel Monaco Baltimore and B&O American Brasserie - which have been tenants of the historic B&O Building since 2009 - has agreed to buy the portion of the structure occupied by the hotel and restaurant for approximately $33 million.
The present owner, Baltimore and Charles Associates, spent about $65 million to buy and renovate the B&O Building from 2007 to 2009. (full article)
Hotel Monaco Baltimore to be sold to Kimpton
A U.S. bankruptcy court judge approved a plan by the owner of Baltimore's Hotel Monaco to liquidate the property.
The approval allows Baltimore & Charles Associates, managed by Philadelphia's Arc Wheeler, to convert the downtown property into three separate parcels and sell them individually. The company spent around $65 million to acquire and renovate the property.
As part of the restructuring plan, an affiliate of Kimpton Hotels plans to buy the hotel portion at 2 N. Charles St. for $33 million. Kimpton manages the 208-room hotel, located inside the historic B&O Building. (full article)
Kimpton Hotel near deal to buy Baltimore's Hotel Monaco site
The owners of the historic B&O Building in downtown Baltimore have reached a tentative deal to sell part of the structure to its marque tenant, Hotel Monaco, to pay off a portion of the debt they took on to buy and renovate the building.
Baltimore and Charles Associates LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore to sell the hotel portion of 2 N. Charles St. to the Hotel Monaco's parent company, the Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group. (full article)
Baltimore's B&O Building could hit the auction block
Lender seeks permission to force property's sale
Another prominent Baltimore building could soon be sold at a foreclosure auction, adding to a swelling number of distressed commercial properties ranging from shopping malls and offices to hotels and vacant property. Utah's Capmark Bank has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore for permission to sell the historic B&O Building at 2 North Charles Street, where a Hotel Monaco opened in July 2009. (full article)
Court Grants Correlogic's Motion to Reject OvaCheck Licensing Agreements with Quest and LabCorp
The company had moved to reject the agreements as part of its July 16 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, claiming that uncertainty over the validity of the agreements was an impediment to obtaining new investment and was hampering its reorganization efforts.
A bankruptcy court this week granted Correlogic Systems' motion to reject licensing agreements with Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corporation of America for its protein biomarker-based ovarian cancer test OvaCheck. Correlogic moved to reject the agreements as part of its July 16 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, claiming that uncertainty over the validity of the agreements was an impediment to obtaining new investment and was hampering its reorganization efforts. (full article)
Developers of 2 downtown hotels file for bankruptcy
Auctions of two downtown Baltimore office buildings that were undergoing conversion to hotels have been cancelled after the developers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection.
The buildings that are no longer up for auction are the former Keyser Building on Redwood Street that was being converted into the Hotel Indigo, a $24 million project with 130 rooms, and the former Jefferson Building on Charles Street that was being converted into a 100-room Staybridge Suites in a $22 million project. (full article)
Hotel Indigo files Chapter 11 to avoid foreclosure
The Hotel Indigo, at the corner of Calvert and Redwood streets, is 98 percent done, according to the attorney for its owners.
Owners of Hotel Indigo, a 10-story boutique hotel in downtown Baltimore that has remained stalled and vacant for nearly a year, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy filing on Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court cites several creditors that are owed more than $14 million for work on the luxury hotel located in the Kaiser Building at 207 Redwood Street. (full article)
Correlogic filed for Chapter 11 to shed contracts
Germantown-based Correlogic Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month so that the diagnostic testing company can shed contracts with two major laboratory test suppliers that it says deter investors.
Though the circumstances of Correlogic's filing are unique, its struggle points to a larger issue for many biotech companies: securing enough money to work their way through the development process in hopes of bringing a product to market. That can take years, even decades, as companies juggle scientific tests and clinical trials with government regulation. In an anemic economy, in which investments are only beginning to pick up after falling to their lowest level in more than a decade, long-term financing can be hard to come by. (full article)
Hotel Monaco developer files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
The owner-developer of downtown Baltimore's historic B&O building has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy stemming from its conversion of the property into a boutique Hotel Monaco. (full article)
Correlogic regroups, files for Chapter 11
Germantown company develops cancer tests
For the second time in a month, a Maryland bioscience company has filed for bankruptcy. But unlike Cyto Pulse Sciences of Glen Burnie, which filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, Correlogic of Germantown has filed for Chapter 11 protection and plans to soldier on with its cancer test candidate.
The company, which develops software for blood assays that look at multiple biomarkers for cancer, recently won approval from European regulators for its OvaCheck early detection test for ovarian cancer. Executives are negotiating deals with European labs to use the test. (full article)
L-Soft bankruptcy case is closed
The administration of L-Soft International Inc.'s bankruptcy case has officially ended. The Landover, Md., software maker announced Tuesday, May 4, that Judge Wendelin Lipp of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt signed the final decree in the company's bankruptcy, signaling the end of the three-year Chapter 11 case. Lipp's order was effective on April 27. L-Soft's reorganization plan became effective on June 17, 2009. (full article)
Purchase rescues Nixon's Farm in Howard
Friends and associates of Randy Nixon bought 97 acres of his family's half-century-old West Friendship farm, including the well-known catering facility, for $2.5 million Thursday in an auction at the Howard County Courthouse.
The purchase amounts to a rescue of the Nixons' plans to develop most of the property as a multigenerational, green-designed community of about 30 to 40 new homes, said Robert Brantley, 64, a financial adviser to the family. It will also allow Randy Nixon to continue operating the catering and event business on the property. (full article)
Longtime engineering firm closes
Harms goes bankrupt, lays off 40 workers
By KATIE ARCIERI, Staff Writer John E. Harms Jr. and Associates, a Pasadena engineering firm that developed marquee projects in the county for more than half a century, filed for bankruptcy last week after abruptly dismissing its 40 remaining workers. Dianne Netherland, the company's chief financial officer, said most of the employees worked in the firm's Pasadena office at 90 Ritchie Highway. About 10 workers reported to the company's Frederick and Easton offices. (full article)
Howard landmark saved from foreclosure
Nixon's Farm files for Chapter 11
A last-minute bankruptcy filing has saved Nixon's Farm, a Howard County landmark known for social and political gatherings, from a foreclosure auction originally scheduled for today.The Chapter 11 filing in U.S. District Court on Tuesday will allow Randall Nixon to continue operating the 128-acre West Friendship farm his family has owned since 1956, said James A. Vidmar, the Annapolis lawyer representing Nixon and his mother, Mildred. (full article)
Nixon's Farm files for bankruptcy, staves off foreclosure
Attorney says farm will operate as normal and plans for development continue
By Derek Simmonsen Nixon's Farm in West Friendship staved off a last-minute foreclosure auction after a member of the family filed for bankruptcy Tuesday. The family's attorney said Nixon's Farm will continue to operate as normal and is moving ahead with plans to develop portions of the property into a multi-generational residential community. (full article)
Working out of distress- Attorney joins boutique Annapolis law firm Baltimore Business Journal - by Ryan Sharrow Staff
James A. Vidmar knows there is no better time to be a corporate bankruptcy attorney.Vidmar, after 19 years at Bethesda law firm Linowes and Blocher LLP, joined longtime friends Sean Logan and Lawrence Yumkas in March at their Annapolis practice. Paul Sweeney, also of Linowes and Blocher, joined Vidmar and formed Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC. Vidmar, 54, a past president of the Bankruptcy Bar Association for Maryland, works with home builders, developers and car dealers on restructuring and litigation. (full article)
People On the Move
Baltimore Business Journal, Legal
Jim Vidmar and Paul Sweeney, formerly of Linowes and Blocher, joined Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC in Annapolis. Vidmar and Sweeney specialize in bankruptcy and commercial litigation. (full article)
Law Firm Addition
Baltimore Sun
The Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney law firm has added two new attorneys and expanded the company's name to Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC of Annapolis. Jim Vidmar and Paul Sweeney, formerly of Linowes and Blocher, joined Logan Yumkas, a corporate bankruptcy and commercial litigation firm. (full article)
Leading Lawyers 2009
Annapolis- http://whatsupmag.com/life-style/profiles/
Annapolis bankruptcy boutique law firm adds two, seeks more
The Daily Record (Baltimore) by Caryn Tamber
In the latest instance of bankruptcy lawyers switching firms, two attorneys from Linowes & Blocher LLP have left to join a small practice in Annapolis. James A. Vidmar and Paul M. Sweeney left their longtime posts at Bethesda-based Linowes & Blocher earlier this month to join Sean Logan and Lawrence Yumkas in their Annapolis bankruptcy practice. The new firm is Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC. A fifth partner, James Schraf, was formerly senior attorney at Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney. (full article)
Prominent Attorneys Vidmar and Sweeney Join Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC Expanded Firm To Be Called Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney, LLC
(Annapolis, MD) - March 11, 2009 - Sean Logan and Larry Yumkas of the law firm of Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney LLC, today announced that Jim Vidmar and Paul Sweeney, formerly of the law firm Linowes & Blocher, have joined the newly expanded firm of Yumkas, Vidmar & Sweeney, LLC . The Annapolis-based firm combines the expertise of some of the area's most prominent corporate bankruptcy and commercial litigation attorneys. (full article)
