NATCHEZ — A group of local investors is purchasing the VUE Hotel and a portion of the adjacent riverfront property originally planned as Grand Soleil Casino.

Commercial real estate owner and timber company owner Vidal Davis said Thursday he, Jimmy Smith and Conner House are in the final process of purchasing the land. Smith developed the local Home Hardware Centers and House is a partner in Davis’ timber company.

The deal is expected to be final Sept. 30 with the group of investors officially taking over management of the hotel Oct. 1.

Davis declined to disclose sales details of the property that for years was operated as the Ramada Inn Hilltop.

“There’s only one thing you can say about that area — it’s got the greatest view of the river of anywhere else I’m aware of,” Davis said. “That’s something you can’t take for granted and can’t substitute with anything else.”

Davis said he and the investors have contracted with Mississippi Management Incorporated Hospitality Group to complete an evaluation of the hotel.

“We’re planning on rebranding the hotel, but we still don’t know all the parts of that yet,” Davis said. “That evaluation is going to tell us what has to be done with the hotel, with the food and beverage and so on.

“But our intentions are to make it something that Natchez is proud of, that locals want to go to and visitors want to come stay in.”

The fate of the other portion of the land located near the riverfront has yet to be determined, Davis said.

Crews worked Thursday to remove kudzu and overgrown vegetation, and Davis said they would continue working to maintain the appearance of the area.

“We want to maintain it so it looks presentable, but there are no immediate plans for that at all,” Davis said. “We’ll determine all that as we move ahead.”

The current owner, RJB Financing, bought the hotel out of bankruptcy in 2012 after a group of out-of-state investors acquired the site with hopes of developing what would then have been Natchez’s second casino — the Grand Soleil Casino.

Grand Soleil developers reworked large portions of the hotel and reportedly completed $14 million in site work along the riverfront, but appeared to run out of cash before getting the casino operational.

In May 2011, several local private creditors including Good Hope Construction (a company owend by Davis), Farmer Electrical Service Company and Ketco petitioned to force Grand Soleil into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Grand Soleil reportedly owed the companies a total of $1.6 million. The hotel elected to enter voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2011.

The VUE Hotel and Restaurant is located at 130 John R. Junkin Drive. The 94-room hotel is stretched across two buildings.

The adjacent 20.9-acre riverfront property is zoned Waterfront Development 2, which includes casino, condominium, restaurant and specialty retail uses.