LV casino told to cooperate with auctioneer

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

Foothill Capital Corp., the largest creditor of the bankrupt Vacation Village hotel-casino in Las Vegas, won an order to force casino management to stop interfering with a court-appointed auctioneer's attempts to auction the property Nov. 20.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Jones ordered Vacation Village on Tuesday to cooperate with Eric Nelson Auctioneering Inc. and to advance Nelson $50,000 in marketing costs.

Foothill, in court papers filed Aug. 29, accused Vacation Village of stalling the auctioneer's marketing efforts including refusing to allow the auctioneer to do a walk-through of the hotel-casino and refusing to provide its gaming contract documents. Vacation Village was also accused of threatening the auctioneer with legal action if it takes steps to implement the auction.

A hearing will be held Sep. 11 to determine if Vacation Village has complied with Tuesday's order.

Gerald Gordon, Foothill's attorney, said: "Under the reorganization plan, Vacation Village has up to five days prior to the Nov. 20 auction to complete refinancing. If they can get refinancing in time, that would be great. If not, then the auction will go ahead."

Phil Abramowitz, Vacation Village's attorney, maintains the hotel-casino expects to get refinancing "very soon before the auction date."