The operation on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the state and an announcement that it “cannot continue operating below a self-sustaining level.” The resort that dates back to the 1960s and includes an 18-hole championship golf course indicated it would continue to work with a new investment partner to try to find a “pathway to financing” to avoid closing, which would result in layoffs for 146 employees.
One of Oregon’s biggest resorts is set to close this summer and 146 employees will lose their jobs as a result, The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. reported.
Kah-Nee-Ta Resort and Spa, which operates on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon, announced on July 6th that it will shutter all operations on September 5th, The Oregonian reported.
An announcement sent from interim general manager Marie Kay Williams said the decision came as the “the resort cannot continue operating below a self-sustaining level,” The Oregonian reported.
Closing the resort is necessary to protect the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs from further financial risk, Williams added.
With the closing of the resort, 146 employees will be laid off, The Oregonian reported, including spa, restaurant, maintenance, room service and administrative workers.
Television and radio stations in Oregon reported that Kah-Nee-Ta had issued a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice with the state of Oregon, in compliance with U.S. labor law that requires employers with 100 or more workers to provide 60 calendar-day advance notice of plant closings and mass layoffs.
It was also reported that while the WARN notice has listed the closure as “permanent,” Kah-Nee-Ta officials had issued communications to workers saying that the resort would continue to look for a “pathway to financing” to try to keep the property open.
According to a tribal newsletter from last fall, AV Northwest, a management and investment firm that had partnered with the tribes in February to run the resort, had planned to invest $17 million in the resort to bring it back up to par, according to the Portland Business Journal. The company was set to sign a 25-year lease with the tribes to run the resort, but it’s not known if that lease was ever signed or if any investments were made.
The tribes originally bought the hot springs and surrounding property in 1959, using funds from a settlement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to the loss of Celilo Falls on the Columbia River.
The first resort facilities were up and running on the property by the mid-1960s, and several expansions and additions have been added in the decades since.
The resort, which is divided into Village and Resort sectors, includes a par-72, 18-hole championship golf course, an Olympic-sized, hot-springs swimming pool, a lodge with three dining venues plus a Village snackbar, the Spa Wanapine (Spa by the River), a 139-room hotel, and an RV park.
Other activities and amenities include riding stables, a poolside arcade, miniature golf, kayaking, hiking, basketball, volleyball, tennis and a picnic/day park.
Specials offered to resort guests include “All You Can Play Recreation,” a Cultural Package, “TeePee Tuesday,” “Rise & Golf,” “Rise & Dine” and “Saturday Salmon Bakes.”
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