The City of Vicksburg will need a bankruptcy attorney to represent the city in the Delta Investments and Development bankruptcy, Mayor Paul Winfield said Tuesday.

“We’ll have to hire a bankruptcy attorney in the next few days to protect the city and to renegotiate with new owners of the Grand Station Casino, whoever they are,” Winfield told the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club.

Delta Investments and Development LLC, the parent company of the Grand Station Casino and Hotel, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 under the Federal Bankruptcy Code on April 2, according to information from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Jackson.

“We’re a creditor,” Winfield said.

According to the legal reference website Martindale.com, there are at least 10 attorneys in Jackson specializing in Chapter 11, and none in Vicksburg.

Under an agreement Delta inherited from Tropicana Entertainment when it bought the casino in 2011, the city was to receive $562,940 a year plus 1.5 percent of the casino’s net revenues until Oct. 13, 2033, for 2.95 acres of the public boat launch area at City Front, the two parking garages across Mulberry Street from the hotel and the walkway from the parking garages to the hotel.

City attorney Lee Thames said Tuesday that the city allowed Delta to spread the first three monthly payments over one year. City Clerk Walter Osborne said Delta has never made a payment.

Grand Station Casino closed March 28, putting 230 employees out of work. The closure came three days after Bally’s Gaming Inc. canceled a foreclosure sale of the casino in an attempt to settle a $3 million debt it says Delta owes.

The Grand Station Hotel was sold in January to Avondale Shipyards Inc., of New Orleans. The company is owned by developer Kenneth W. Bickford, not affiliated with the shipbuilding yard, which is owned by Huntington Ingalls.

Winfield said several groups have expressed an interest in the casino, but did not name any potential buyers. He added state gaming officials are looking for someone to buy the hotel and the casino.

“I think it’s right and fair that whoever buys the casino should own the hotel,” he said.

Bally’s filed for foreclosure Feb. 29 and filed a suit on March 2 in U.S. District Court in Jackson to recover the money. The bankruptcy stopped the foreclosure.

Harrah’s opened the casino in 1993 and sold it in 2003 for $28.6 million to Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, which renamed the casino Horizon. Tropicana Entertainment, which had been part of Columbia Sussex, took over Horizon operations and, in 2007, the firm agreed to sell the casino to Nevada Gold and Casinos for about $35 million, but that deal fell through a year later.

In 2010, Delta bought the hotel and casino for $3.25 million in cash plus liabilities. One was the lease agreement dating to 1993 with the City for the City Front property and the casino parking garages between Mulberry and Washington.