The Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi, Miss., closed just two years after opening in 2012, and then sat empty for nine years before another resort company bought it last month. The last location of Mr. Buffett’s fast-food chain, Cheeseburger in Paradise, closed in Secaucus, N.J., in 2020; Mr. Buffett sold his stake to the restaurant operator Luby’s for $11 million in 2012.
In 2021, Margaritaville Resort Times Square opened in New York to great fanfare. The $370 million property, which features a 32-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty hoisting a margarita glass, is owned by Soho Properties. Soho’s partner, IMCMV Holdings, leased the location and struck a trademark license agreement with Margaritaville Enterprises.
In July, the resort entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in an attempt to stop a foreclosure auction sale after Soho failed to make a debt payment, according to court filings. The hotel was valued between $266 million and $350 million as of May, with revenues expected to exceed $25 million by the end of next year — a sign of the property’s potential despite the pressures of the pandemic, according to the filings.
Soho Properties declined to comment.
When reached on Sunday by phone, a worker at the Times Square location said people had been leaving flowers by the towering statue of a glossy blue flip-flop in the lobby as part of a makeshift memorial to Mr. Buffett.
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.