Copia Museum Files for Banruptcy

The NY Times is reporting the Copia Museum in the Napa Region of California filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The NY Times article is rather short so I will cut and paste. The Copia Museum is an interesting concept, and I hope the board and patrons find a way of making it work.

Copia, the ambitious food, wine and art museum in Napa, Calif., today filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

In addition to the bankruptcy filing, Copia announced that it had secured a $2 million line of credit to fund its day-to-day operations while it looks for other ways out of a financial crisis that had been mounting for years.

Copia closed without notice on November 21, sending employees home and cancelling several scheduled events. Although an initial statement from the nonprofit organization said that it would reopen today, December 1, doors remained shut.

Copia has struggled to find its footing since opening in November 2001, and has been laboring to meet costs since restructuring its considerable debt in 2007. As reported in the Sacramento Bee in July, Copia has lost more than $4 million in each fiscal year since opening, leaving the organization insolvent and at risk of defaulting on its bond of $70 million. About a third of the employees were laid off in September.

Start-up costs for Copia, which includes a grand building on the Napa River, organic gardens, outdoor kitchens, wine tasting rooms, exhibition galleries and a restaurant called Julia’s Kitchen, ran more than $55 million, at least half of which came directly from the late Robert Mondavi, who died in May of this year.