NATCHEZ — A local bank has begun the process to foreclose on property occupied by the Grand Soleil hotel, but the attorney for the hotel’s development group says the foreclosure won’t happen.

Britton & Koontz Bank published a foreclosure notice Thursday naming three tracts of land purchased by Big River Enterprises, LLC, the developing partner of Grand Soleil Casino Resort in Natchez.

The named tracts include the Grand Soleil hotel, but not the land slated for the casino, Big River Enterprises attorney Kent Hudson said.

“The foreclosure will definitely not happen,” Hudson said Saturday. “We attempted to make arrangements with the banks, but because of the current national and economic meltdown, the company itself had to change strategies.”

Hudson said Big River Enterprises is in the process of negotiations that are close to coming to fruition.

“We had a very, very firm commitment for the financing of the whole thing,” Hudson said. “When the meltdown happened, the people that had committed to purchase the bonds just backed out.”

Now, Big River Enterprises is bringing in more equity partners, Hudson said.

The foreclosure is set for the hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Adams County Courthouse.

But Hudson said the matter would be solved before then.

“We didn’t want them to (begin foreclosure),” Hudson said. “But the bank has its own agenda and they feel like they have to do what they have to do. We are working around it.”

Big River Enterprises and the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin are the partners behind the project.