With 110 years of history behind it, the Naramata Inn has seen lots of ups and downs, but this year, the Inn may not reopen, and none of the parties involved is ready to say why.
“I’m not prepared to make any comment other than it is closed for the immediate future,” said Norm Davis, representing the owners of the 107-year-old heritage building.
In 2013, Julius Bloomfield and his wife Toni purchased the rights to operate the Inn and the Cobblestone Wine Bar, with ownership remaining in the hands of Davis and other shareholders. Davis said that relationship has been terminated.
“Unfortunately, we had to evict the tenant,” said Davis, who wouldn’t elaborate on the cause of the eviction.
“I don’t know why, other than to say, these things don’t happen overnight. They take a long time to get to this point,” said Davis. “It is not where we would like to be, but we didn’t have a choice.”
Davis said they are searching for new operators, but doesn’t know if or when the Inn is going to reopen.
“We would love to see it reopen. This is not the place we would want to see it, by any means,” said Davis. “But it has been around for 110 years, I am pretty confident it will be around for another 110.”
Bloomfield also said he couldn’t comment on the eviction.
“We just don’t know what they are planning. We are getting so many conflicting stories and they are not telling us,” said Bloomfield. “We put our heart and soul into it for a couple of years.”
Right now, Bloomfield said that are trying to deal with the bookings already arranged for the summer.
“We have a record amount of business booked for this year, it is unfortunate that we couldn’t continue,” said Bloomfield. “We are working hard to try to satisfy those bookings right now.”