A Teamsters pension fund filing in the Star Tribune's bankruptcy says the paper will carry $100 million in debt if it gets out of Chapter 11 — or fetch that amount if the Strib is sold off in pieces.

A memo from Teamsters pension official Peter Priede to Strib lawyer Randy Lebedoff recounts company statements. Secured creditors would write down $396 million in existing debt, but $100 million is a big number, considering the Strib isn't servicing any debt at present, and hasn't since September 2008 when the economy and the state of newspapers was better.

Like all debtors, management is using bankruptcy to cut labor and lease costs so it can pay lenders enough to keep the doors open.

However, should the Strib die, creditors estimate they could get the same $100 million from liquidaton, the memo states. That's a bit of a shocker, considering the San Diego Union Tribune, a similarly sized paper, sold in March for under $50 million, primarily for its real estate value. The Strib's land couldn't fetch $45 million in 2007, before the real estate bubble fully popped.

[Update: I'm reminded the Strib has another two-plus blocks near its North Loop printing plant.]

In the document — filed Monday on behalf of the paper's drivers — Priede recounts details gleaned from Lebedoff "and other Tribune representatives":

The Tribune's senior secured lenders, to whom the company owes approximately $400 million, have agreed, subject to certain contingencies, to exchange their secured debt for equity in the Tribune. The senior secured lenders will also be receiving a secured promissory note in the amount of $100 million in this exchange; the note represents the approximate value the secured lenders would realize if the Tribune were to liquidate at this time.

Monday, I reported that the paper's unsecured creditors, who are owed another $100 million, would receive a 4 percent interest in the new company.

Presumably, the secured creditors would own the remaining 96 percent, though Priede's memo does not address this point. The Star Tribune does not return MinnPost's calls on business matters.

The Strib's drivers have threatened to strike if U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain abrogates their existing labor contract. The company has demanded such an action due to a pension stalemate, though negotiations are ongoing in advance of a June 9 hearing.

If the memo accurately characterizes the creditors' position, and creditors aren't just posturing that they can get as much for a dead paper as a live one, they may not care what happens next.

By the way, the $100 million represents a significant deterioration in the Strib's estimated value since December, when union representatives were told creditors would write down debt to $200 million.