Belle’s parent company plans 'business as usual' despite bankruptcy filing

The owner of the Belle of Baton Rouge and the Sheraton Baton Rouge Convention Center Hotel says plans are to continue "business as usual" after the casino's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Tropicana Entertainment filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware late Monday, nearly five months after New Jersey regulators stripped the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City of its license. That touched off a funding crisis that the company desperately struggled to fend off.

Hud Englehart with Tropicana says the filing will allow the company to correct its debt situation and will not affect operations at the Belle or any of the other properties included in the filing, which also covers The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy's Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; and Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss. The Amelia Belle Casino in St. Mary Parish was not included because it is owned by a corporate affiliate. Englehart says plans to swap the Amelia Belle and Belle of Baton Rouge riverboats are still in the works. Members of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board were at a casino industry conference in Biloxi, Miss., on Tuesday morning and unavailable to comment on Tropicana's bankruptcy filing. Englehart says state gaming regulators have been notified about the situation.

Paul West, an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford who specializes in gaming law, says Tropicana's bankruptcy won't change how the gaming control board looks at the casino. There have been several cases of casino owners filing for Chapter 11 (including a current case in Shreveport), and the state has been content to stay on the sidelines as long as there was no threat to the employees or the integrity of the gambling hall. That the Amelia Belle was excluded from the filing could mean that riverboat might change hands in order to generate money for Tropicana, West says. A group of shareholders sued Tropicana earlier this year to block the company from selling five casinos, including the Belle of Baton Rouge.--Timothy Boone

EBR gets Green Light for improvements

Mayor Kip Holden will take part in a ceremonial groundbreaking at 10 a.m. tomorrow for North Harrell’s Ferry Road, the fifth Green Light Plan road project to begin construction. The project will replace a two-lane, open-ditch road with a two-lane, curb-and-gutter road with a continuous center turn lane. The construction starts three years after voters passed a half-cent sales tax to pay for the $500 million construction plan. Click here to check out the Business Report cover story about the program and its more than 40 projects. Send comments to editors@businessreport.com.

Central parks issue to go before committee next week

The House Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs committee will consider a bill granting Central its own recreation district on May 14, says Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, the committee’s vice chairwoman. The committee was originally scheduled to hear House Bill 792 by Rep. Bodi White, R-Central, on May 23, after temporarily shelving the bill last month. Nothing was resolved in a meeting this morning of local legislators, BREC officials and Central officials, but all parties agreed to meet again at 7 a.m. Monday at BREC headquarters. Critics in Central believe the community has been neglected by BREC for years, while the recreation department argues delays in making capital improvements have been caused by circumstances outside their control. BREC hopes to convince White to withdraw his bill with a timeline detailing specific improvements and spending plans for Central. White said he believes he has the votes to pass the bill out of committee and the House, and said he also has two Senate supporters. For a Business Report story about this issue, click here.--David Jacobs

Regents oppose proposed cuts to higher education

The State Board of Regents says proposed cuts to the 2008-09 state budget, if adopted, will produce a crippling blow to Louisiana's public colleges and universities. The proposed cuts, which were recommended today to the House Appropriations Committee, are the result of a legislative directive to trim 5% from Gov. Bobby Jindal's executive budget now before the Legislature.

Various subcommittees of the appropriations committee have recommended $116 million in cuts, $70 million of which would come from education and roughly $31 million from higher education. More than a quarter of the proposed cuts would come from higher education, according to the Regents. Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie complained that Jindal's proposed $15 million for performance-based funding has been targeted for elimination.

"And the reduction in formula funding means that some of our campuses will once again fall below peer funding levels, which will only damage our state's economic prospects, not improve them," Savoie says.

Last year's Legislature passed the largest single-year funding increase for public colleges and universities, which only brought funding up to the Southern regional average. With the current proposed cuts, those institutions would once again fall behind peer schools, according to the Board of Regents. -- Steve Clark

U.S. home values post biggest drop in 12 years

The median U.S. home value dropped 7.7% in the first quarter, the biggest year-to-year decline in 12 years, according to a new report. Zillow.com, an online real estate community, says median home prices have not been this low since the second quarter of 2005 and that more than half the people who bought houses at the market peak of 2006 now owe more on their mortgage than the property is currently worth. The survey looked at home prices in 160 major U.S. markets, but Baton Rouge was not included; New Orleans was the only south Louisiana market included in the report. According to Zillow, home values there dropped by 1.3% in the past year, to a median of $149,000. For an interactive map of home values, click here.

Real Estate Weekly: Smokey Bones site remains on market

Real Estate Weekly has information on the vacant Smokey Bones building, which has been empty for a year after parent company Darden Restaurants pulled the plug on the barbecue chain. Also: Stirling Properties Chairman/Co-Founder Jimmy Maurin is inducted into the LSU Alumni Association Hall of Distinction and the latest columns from Brian Andrews and Tom Cook. To read the newsletter, click here.

News roundup: Perrilloux could be headed to Jacksonville State; Albemarle teaming up for smallpox treatment; 'marked improvement' in LEAP, GEE results

How the mighty have fallen: Jacksonville (Ala.) State has received permission to talk to former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux about transferring, The Birmingham News reports. Perrilloux was dismissed from the LSU football team Friday after repeated off-the-field problems, including a reported failed drug test. He could transfer to a Football Championship Subdivision school such as Jacksonville State and play in the fall. Local company part of bioterrorism efforts: Albemarle has been selected by SIGA Technologies to provide manufacturing services for a smallpox antiviral treatment. The treatment has potential antiterrorism applications, since there are fears of smallpox being used in biowarfare. Albemarle, which is moving its corporate offices to Baton Rouge, will produce the drug at its South Haven, Mich., plant. Children are learning: Fourth- and eighth-graders in Louisiana public schools showed "marked improvement" this spring in scores on standardized tests that are required for promotion to the next grade, state education officials said Tuesday. High school students taking the state graduation exit exam showed smaller overall gains and fell behind in science, officials said. Statewide, 76% of fourth-graders passed the 2008 promotion test known as LEAP, compared to 74% in 2007. Sixty-nine percent of eighth-graders passed the LEAP this year compared to 66% in 2007. For parish-by-parish scores, click here.