NATURAL BRIDGE (WSLS10) -After months of money troubles, Natural Bridge has made major progress in paying off debts. This week the owners paid off their back taxes to Rockbridge County.
Jennifer Bell, Director of Operations has been working hard to pinch pennies along with hotel management.
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"It felt so good to get that paid," Bell said.
She says they've wiped out a little more than 100-thousand dollars in debt of overdue taxes to Rockbridge County. This week they made full payments on the hotels meals, occupancy and past due real-estate taxes.
They've also made progress on their missed loan payment of 924-thousand dollars to the VRA.
To date they've paid 175-thousand dollars.
Bell says fall business at the hotel has picked up.
"We expected to have a good October, which we did," Bell said.
Bell says that will help make up for a slower than expected summer that she says sent them into trouble in the first place.
To make ends meet in the meantime, the owners have made cuts, including laying off seasonal staff.
Management also plans to donate 13-hundred acres of land and the Natural Bridge caverns to the state, earning them more than a million in tax credits to help pay that debt.
Renovations on the hotel have stopped until vendors can be paid. Bell stresses that all vendors will be made in full. She says they continue to openly communicate with vendors. While renovation may be at a standstill for now, that's doesn't stop their vision of capital improvement for the future. Management says continued improvement is necessary to attract more guests.
"We are meeting with several different investors to see if anyone would like to partner with us on the hotel side, and help us infuse capital into the building, so we can finish our renovations and get the marketing out there and the exposure we need," Bell said.
According to the plan, all debts will be paid by December 31, 2015.