By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT MITCHELL - The Drawbridge hotel emerged Wednesday from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy it filed four months ago. It will continue to be operated by the Deters family.

The hotel's financial reorganization was approved in an order signed by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge William S. Howard in Lexington.

The Drawbridge, which opened in 1970, is a Northern Kentucky institution and landmark. For years, it was the only major hotel and convention facility in the region.

But as Northern Kentucky grew during the 1980s and 1990s, more hotels opened, particularly along the riverfront and in and around the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in Boone County. And lots of convention business moved to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, which opened five years ago in Covington.

"This represents a tremendous victory for (Drawbridge founder) Jerry Deters and everybody else who believes in this hotel and works here," said Thomas Coffey, a bankruptcy lawyer at Cors & Bassett in Fort Wright who crafted and negotiated the reorganization plan.

"This is a good day, but I knew it could come," Deters said in his office at the hotel. "I knew we would survive."

Deters, 76, will stay on in sales and advisory capacity but has turned over ownership of the hotel to a new corporation formed by his brother, Charlie Deters - a lawyer with business interests in horse racing, restaurants, convenience stores, banking and development - and Northern Kentucky home builder Joe Arlinghaus.

Charlie Deters and Arlinghaus put up $1.5 million in cash to pay off a portion of the hotel's $11.5 million in debt - including $400,000 owed to the First National Bank of Northern Kentucky - and will assume the roughly $9 million owed to the hotel's largest creditor, the Nationwide Life Insurance Co. of Columbus.

Coffey said he also negotiated debt payments with creditors that will improve the hotel's cash flow. And Jerry Deters and his wife, Marge, also gave up their claim of ownership of various assets controlled by the hotel and more than $100,000 owed them by the hotel.

"They've always sacrificed for the Drawbridge, and they continued to do so throughout this process," said Coffey

Deters, who suffered a heart attack in October, also gave up the presidency of the hotel.

Donna Lewis, a 27-year-employee, has been named general manager. And 21-year Drawbridge veteran Jack Bell has returned after a working for a Northern Kentucky banquet operator. Bell will oversee the food and beverage operation for the entire hotel, including the adjacent Gatehouse restaurant, which reopened last spring.

"We've returned a lot of things to the way they were, especially at the Gatehouse," Bell said.

"People will want to come back and try us again."

Coffey said the new owners will invest money to improve the hotel's Internet booking system and offer special room packages for family and business travelers.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com