Paul Cook is acting as a mortgagee in possession on behalf of Hobart law firm Piggott, Wood and Baker, which has an exposure of more than $5 million.

The firm's contributory mortgage fund lent the D. P. and L. J. Krushka Family Trust No. 3 $3 million for Sunny Hill, and it lent $2.1 million to the Krushka Family Trust No. 4 for the Bridport Resort.

The Sunny Hill Country Club at Ravenswood, which once employed 18 people, reopened on Friday under the management of Owen Cook.

Licensing Commissioner Ren Middleton said Owen Cook had been issued with an interim authority to act as a licensee.

Paul Cook said that the firm would decide in about a month whether to sell, lease or continue to trade the hotel. ``We will make an assessment on how to maximise the value to the mortgagee.''

Late last year Piggott, Wood and Baker advised investors that it would pay them as interest payments came in.

It is understood that interest payments were not being made on Sunny Hill, which closed three weeks ago.

Mr Cook said there were parties interested in leasing the property.

Late last year, Mr Krushka unsuccessfully tried to refinance the Bridport Resort.

The Bridport Hotel, on which he spent $250,000 in refurbishment, has been leased, but Piggott, Wood and Baker is collecting the rent.

Mr Krushka had proposed a $9 million development at the Beachfront Hotel in Hobart and spent $200,000 on a protracted legal battle to get planning approval.

His first two developments were the $5 million Trinity Estate unit development on the Brooker Highway in Hobart and a $3 million waterfront hotel in Hobart.

Piggott, Wood and Baker was also involved in the former Golden Karinya Resort at Hadspen.