COLORADO SPRINGS — At the beginning of the year, Hotel Eleganté was bought by a Texas-based developer, SHIR Capitol, with the intention of turning the hotel that’s been in the community for around fifty years into “low-cost” apartments.

The closure of the hotel came with the letting go of 166 employees with very little notice, according to a former employee who worked food and beverage for the hotel.

According to a former employee, the closure of the hotel impacted many employees who are now scrambling to find work. Credit: Sarah Hempelmann

“I walk in on, whatever it was New Year’s Eve, and no time clock and they had everything all locked up and Ed came back and told us — 10 o’clock — that food and beverage is shut down,” Ron said.

He along with many others said they all assumed they had at least several more months before the inevitable firings.

“We all thought we had time to get our act together and get our I’s dotted and our T’s crossed and go out there and find a job that suited us. But now, we’re all just sort of scrambling around trying to figure out what we’re going to do,” said the former employee who also told FOX21 he is currently in the process of starting the job hunt.

The company is giving the employees severance, but employees said it was cut at the last minute.

“Originally they were going to give us a year severance pay and all of a sudden that turned into 3 months pay. He didn’t have to give us anything, you know, so it was nice he gave us the 3 months. But yeah, 3 months doesn’t go very far,” Ron said.

Employees said they don’t fault the owner, but they admit the transition could have been handled better. Credit: Sarah Hempelmann

After all the time they put in and the risks many of them took working through COVID, employees said the way the transition was handled doesn’t reflect on the hard work they had put in.

“We didn’t collect unemployment during the COVID, I mean we all stuck it out there and we were the only hotel in town that stayed open during all that COVID nonsense. Pretty much all employees, I mean, everybody’s real loyal to that place. Our wages weren’t very good but we all stayed pretty loyal.”

Ron told FOX21 that he still respects the former owner of the hotel and appreciates all that he has done for employees in the past and doesn’t blame him for selling. But he said the transition in general was poorly handled and employees blindsided by getting let go without notice was an unfortunate circumstance that could have been prevented.