‘Natural’ development files bankruptcy

A North Country resort, spa and condo complex for the environmentally conscious filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, but its president, Laila Fekay, shrugged it off as a mere “interruption in the process,” and “just a way to refinance.”

Besides, she said, “The buck doesn’t come first. Nature does.”

Fekay is marketing Naturally New Hampshire Healthfully Yours in Twin Mountain and Bethlehem to those who care about the environment. Her Web sites stress how the facilities there – whether a solar geothermal round cedar home or the solar springs health spa – would use renewable energy, which they note, could result in a tax break.

The Bethlehem spa, according to the Web site, promotes “all encompassing mind spirit/body integral internal/radically nutritional and spiritual-mind inner resources that inspire transcending, transforming enlightenment, calm and peace” It is planned at the Moosewood Lake Sanctuary.

Pre-construction memberships range for $1,500 for a year to $10,000 for five years, including two-bedroom lodging. There is a small airport adjacent, The Web site call for a very limited number of building sites with deeded easement to 50 acres of wildlife preserve.

But Fekay she said she was shifting away from providing lodging, and more into condos, because the “hospitality industry is shot.”

In addition, delays in financing forced her to file for Chapter 11 protection, but “we are just regrouping while getting some real money.”

She said she had lists of environmentalists who are willing to buy into the project and investors who will plunk down millions of dollars.

According to the filing, the complex owes $1.75 million to three investors, who are listed as both secured and unsecured creditors. The complex also owes some $10,000 in taxes to the town of Carroll, according to the filing. – BOB SANDERS