'Really just a stretch of bad luck': Wabush Hotel in receivership but still open

A Wabush hotel that's gone into receivership says it is still open for business and people who work there are optimistic the facility has a future.

Ruth Corbett, whoruns the Just for Men barbershop located near the entrance tothe Wabush Hotel, saidsome people thought the hotel and her shop were locked up tight.

"I had several phone calls asking me if I was still open,and they'd say well the hotel's closed and I'd say, no,it's not closed," Corbett said.

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Thehotel is now being operated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the court-appointed receiver. It will be doing some restructuring but said the hotelis still a viable business and will be eventually offered for sale.

"I grew up here and I love this hotel," said Natalie Pear, who hasworked at the hotel for 30 years.

"It's a big change for everybody but the transition is going pretty smooth. Other than that, we're open for business, try to make it better, try to get more business where we can."

Pear, who has seen the hotel through the booms and the busts in Labrador West, told CBC that employees are trying to make it work.

"It's not as busy as we would like but it's pretty steady," Pear said."It's going to be one day at a time."

Praise for former owner

Wabush mayorColin Vardyhas nothing but praise for the hotel's former owner Roger Enault, who told CBCin 2015that his revenues had dropped by $1 million in the previous year.

"The operator was fantastic," Vardy said, but could not weather the closure of the town's main employer, Wabush Mines.

"Unfortunately he never had enough time to rationalize those risks into success and I say this time and time again. We shouldn't hold that against him, the decisions he made, because if things had kept going the way they were, we'd all be sat around today saying we should've done what he done."

He said when times were good Enault gave a lot to the community.

"Hewants the community to succeed," Vardy said.

"He's been especially kind during the boom to our fire department when he bought all the new firemen uniforms. It was really just a stretch of bad luck for Roger."

Vardy is encouraging people to continue to use the hotel and said it has a lot to offer.

"I do hope there's a new owner that comes forward because it certainly is a key piece of our community."