On Wednesday, September 9, the Walt Disney World Resort filed a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) financing statement form against the Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant group with the State of Florida.

The Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant group operates the restaurants and retail locations throughout the Morocco Pavilion at EPCOT.

In the filing Disney is seeking the following:

All goods, the inventory, the Furnishings, and all other personal property belonging to Debtor which are or may be put into the Facilities and all proceeds of the foregoing. “Furnishings” means all inventory, furnishings, furniture, supplies, equipment and other items of personality required or desired by Debtor for the sponsorship and operation of the Facilities. “Facilities” mean all restaurants, cafes, quick service restaurants, retail areas, concession areas, kiosks, hostess stands, back-of-the-house areas, storage areas, office areas and any other areas upon with Debtor conducts business at the Morocco Pavilion at Epcot Theme Park and having a physical address 1788-1790 Avenue of the Stars, City of Bay Lake, Florida.

It is unclear how much the company owes to Walt Disney World or what Disney is seeking to secure from them, but Kelly Scott writes on AllEars.net, “… it seems Disney … through an arrangement … with Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant, LLC, obtained a security interest in some collateral pledged by Marrakesh to secure the debt or obligation it owes to Disney. Now, Disney has filed this Financing Statement to provide notice to others of its security interest in these goods, inventory, etc., which may be utilized if Marrakesh does not pay the debt it owes to Disney.

In 2012, Patrick J. Burton published an article, “Florida’s UCC Filing System: How a Design Overhaul Could Lead to More Certainty in Filing and Searching for Financing Statements” in Barry’s Law Review. According to AllEars.net, “… In order for creditors to create a security interest in a debtor’s collateral that will grant them priority in collection rights over any subsequent creditors, they must ‘perfect’ their security interest.’ Secured creditors generally achieve this ‘perfection’ by  ‘publishing or giving notice to third parties that a party already has a security interest in a piece of collateral.’ Secured creditors can perfect their security interest by filing a financing statement.”

Back in April, the Marrakesh Moroccan Restaurant, LLC filed with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). According to the U.S. Small Business Association website, “The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. SBA will forgive loans if all employee retention criteria are met, and the funds are used for eligible expenses. Click here to read more about PPP loan forgiveness.”

The company asked for a loan between $1-2 million to retain 260 jobs. As the parks began their phased reopening, the Tangarine Cafe was open for only a few days, but closed due to a “lack of demand.” Currently Tangerine Cafe and Restaurant Marrakesh are listed as “temporarily unavailable” on the Walt Disney World Resort website.

The Morocco Pavilion operates independently from Disney. It was the first expansion pavilion to be added to EPCOT’s World Showcase on 7 September 1984.

King Hassan II sent Moroccan artisans to design and create the many mosaics in the pavilion. Due to Islamic religious beliefs on the content of art, the mosaics contain no representations of people. The Government of Morocco sponsors the pavilion.