Iconic resort looks to bright future

By BOB KECSKEMETY

The Parliament House Resort, a longtime fixture in Orlando’s gay community, is no longer under control of receivership and is back in the hands of owner Don Granatstein.

After a courtroom battle and a foreclosure lawsuit over an unpaid debt, the Parliament House was put under court ordered receivership on Sept. 1, which had been controlling the finances and operation of the business until Dec. 21.

Also returning will be the resort’s general manager, Bill Lape, who had held that position for 31 years and was fired by the receiver. Other employees also left at that time.

Granatstein stated that their lender, Southwest Guarantee, “went into bankruptcy and they were fighting for their lives.” He claims that Southwest seized Parliament House’s assets and scooped up the escrow accounts. “Then their bank started to seize our security and it all ended up in a big fight. And in the middle of all this, they [Southwest Security] applied for a receiver and everybody was fighting and we were caught in the middle.”

According Granatstein, after the smoke cleared from the two financial institutions fighting it out, Compass Bank, Southwest’s lender, saw no need for Parliament House to ever have been placed under receivership and lifted the receiver. Granatstein said that the three-and-ahalf months of receivership felt more like three-and-half years but is glad that, outside of firing a few people, they never tried to run the business as it was more of a matter of controlling the funds.

But the firing of Lape, said Granatstein, was seen as an insult by the community, which led to other employees leaving. Granatstein is sure that they, too, will return. He claims that the firing and the report of the receivership hurt business as special events and hotel reservations dropped. However, the first weekend after receivership, when word went out that Parliament House was in the clear, business picked up dramatically, so he feels that any damage done is repairable.

Now that the receivership is lifted, the Parliament House will no go through with their renovation plans they had before the court order, which are already fully funded.

“We want to thank everybody for all their support through a bad time,” concluded Granatstein. “We’ll be here for another 35 years.”