Lafayette-based Green Field Energy Services has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company is owned in part by Lafayette businessman Mike Moreno, who also owns a significant amount of property along Nicholson Drive in Baton Rouge. The Wall Street Journal reports Green Field is filing for the protection following the loss in August of a major client, Royal Dutch Shell. As of its Chapter 11 filing on Sunday, Green Field had $255.9 million in bond debt, an $80 million credit facility owed to Shell (although Green Field is arguing in court documents that Shell failed to perfect liens securing this debt, hinting at a potential court fight) and $98.6 million in trade debt, according to the report. Moreno began acquiring property about six years ago along the Nicholson corridor for his Nicholson Estates project, which includes about 45 acres of land around Magnolia Mound Plantation. In April, Dalis Waguespack of Moreno Properties told Daily Report that an architect was also in the process of finalizing a master plan for River District, another planned mixed-use development along the Nicholson Drive corridor. In 2010, Nicholson Estates applied to build a temporary concert venue on a portion of the property, but those plans were later dropped. Most recently, Nicholson Estates acquired a 6.3-acre tract along River Road for nearly $1.1 million. The land, purchased in early August, is bordered by Coolidge and Van Buren streets and by railroad tracks. It is unclear what effect, if any, Moreno’s Chapter 11 filing in Lafayette will have on his real estate plans in Baton Rouge. —Staff report
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected since original publication. An earlier version stated Mike Moreno is chairman and CEO of Moreno Group, Acadiana’s largest privately held company. A spokesman with the company, which is now called Dynamic Energy Services International LLC, says Moreno is no longer chairman or CEO, but is a shareholder in the firm’s parent company. Daily Report regrets the error.
