The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday inspected Allen Casey's rundown barge on Chattanooga's downtown waterfront and found no significant reservations for the vessel to be towed away, an attorney said.
Jerrold Farinash, trustee in Casey's U.S. Bankruptcy Court case, said the Coast Guard determined the dilapidated barge could safely travel on the Tennessee River.
He said that Gulfstream Enterprises, a Biloxi, Miss., company commissioned to move the barge, is working on summoning a tugboat to rid the barge from the waterfront. Farinash said it's still unclear exactly when the barge will be moved out of the city.
The tug could take several days before it arrives in Chattanooga. Also, the Coast Guard may have to make one more inspection of the tug's hookup to the barge.
"We're on the downhill side," Farinash said.
Casey, a Chattanooga businessman who developed the Chattanooga Choo Choo more than four decades ago, brought the barge to the city in 2009 to serve as a floating restaurant. But nothing was built and the vessel fell into disrepair.
Casey and one of his companies filed for bankruptcy more than a year ago after he was slated to go to trial in a lawsuit brought by a group of former investors in the barge.
Casey also had proposed a hotel and condominiums on about 10 acres of vacant land to which the barge is moored. About six acres of the site was earlier put on the market for $11.2 million.
Under a court plan, Gulfstream was to be given ownership of the barge and be paid $195,000 to remove it. The company was given a May 15 deadline to do so.
A bank loan from Southern Community Bank is being used to pay Gulfstream. The loan is to be paid back from proceeds of the land sale, attorneys have said.
Will Ladnier of Gulf-stream earlier said he had a couple of different places where he was planning to take the barge without being specific. One plan mentioned in a prior court hearing was that the barge would be floated down river and ultimately to Mobile Bay.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.