Owned by Grosvenor Orlando Associates of San Francisco, the 32-year-old, 626-room hotel at 1850 Hotel Plaza Blvd., also emerged from Bankruptcy Court protection Aug. 12 with a built-up cash reserve of $4 million, according to documents filed with Bankruptcy Judge Arthur B. Briskman.

The resort's owner filed for Chapter 11 protection under the US Bankruptcy Code on Feb. 1 of this year after its lead lender, New York-based and Tokyo-owned Orix Credit Alliance, asked a state circuit court in Orlando to foreclose on the property in June 2003 when the hotel's $49.9-million mortgage note fell into default, according to court records.

The judge allowed the 300-employee hotel to continue operating during its financial restructuring period when hotel management built up the property's cash reserve to $4 million from $1 million. In its Chapter 11 petition, the hotel had listed total debts of $50.9 million and assets between $10 million and $50 million.

The hotel also listed $1.3 million in cash on hand, enough to continue operating the business, Grosvenor lawyers contended at the time. Under the bankruptcy exiting terms, Grosvenor will repay Orix, a secured creditor, the full $51 million owed, plus interest, over a five-year period ending in January 2010.

Unsecured trade vendors will be repaid the total $1 million owed over five years at 5% interest. Disney, which owns the land on which the hotel sits, was paid its ground lease on time during the entire seven-month bankruptcy proceedings, according to court-filed papers.

Still unresolved is a $1.5-million debt allegedly owed to 50 former union hotel workers who were fired during a 1996 strike and ordered reinstated in 1998. The hotel disputes the alleged debt amount; but the judge has ordered full payment on whatever amount is finally agreed on, according to court records.

Grosvenor Orlando Associates bought the hotel in 1986 for $33 million or about $52,716 per room. The property opened in 1972 as the Americana Dutch Resort.