We’ve got a story for you. On one hand, it’s a shockingly normal story about big banks, unoriginality, and the choices we get to make as a community in response.
On another, it’s a story about vulnerability and how far too often we, as friends and business owners, keep quiet when we need the most help. In our pivotal moments, we leave stones unturned, choosing to believe that we are unworthy of the magic standing right in front of us if we invite it.
In this tale, you may very well end up writing the final chapter.
The moral of the story? Banks, it turns out, do not understand hot springs, you as soakers, nor the people that steward them.
Today, we are mulling over the most important choice we will ever face as a business and we feel like you deserve to be a part of our thinking.
For the second time in our four years of life as a community, a bank has pulled out of their deal. We’ve done everything we said we would do, and after green lighting our efforts to restore our pool, create Stone Shelters, and invest in the land, they’ve arrived at the altar and said, “Our mood has changed, and so has our promise. We are out".
By the numbers, our business is healthy, our appraisals are right on point, and all the bells and whistles of due diligence, deliverables, and deadlines have been as we promised. Perhaps if we were a shiny new car wash or another fast-food chain gutting out the heart of Main Street, we would seem familiar and safe to corporate capital. But the truth is, we will never be that.
We'd rather bet on customers in pools, not suits in cities.
So what's our choice? We can either find another uninspiring lender in a baggy polo shirt hundreds of miles away who won't sit in our pool and give our loan interest to them OR, we can say-
"F%$k them. Let's pay it to our customers."
So far, this entire restoration has been powered by the people, and we're feeling like it should stay that way.
Right now, one of you may very well be the magic we are looking for. If you want to make a solid return on a fully collateralized loan for a short period of time, send us a note, and don't forget your swimsuit.
Stay tuned for plenty more ways fellow hot springers can help replace big banks.