1:10 A.M. — The Hotel Indigo in Fort Myers has been hit with a foreclosure lawsuit and is on shaky ground financially.

A city councilman, though, says the high-end inn is a boon to downtown and could thrive in the long run.

TIB Bank filed the foreclosure Tuesday in Lee Circuit Court, saying that owner DOC Ft Myers II LLC had failed to keep up with payments on a $9.8 million mortgage.

Now, the Indigo — open just seven months — is being sustained with the help of an infusion of cash from TIB, according to the lawsuit.

But Councilman Mike Flanders, an architect whose office is a few blocks from the hotel, said it’s still “a wonderful building, a wonderful entity for Fort Myers. I hope it can get into new hands” who will be able to run it profitably.

“I was hoping the Hotel Indigo could make it through and have a life through the first tourist season, which starts pretty soon and lasts through April,” Flanders said.

The restaurant appears to be doing well, Flanders said, and the hotel is getting a lot of weekend business. Its soft spot is Sunday through Thursday, a time when action downtown is slow.

Lee Circuit Judge Joseph Fuller on Tuesday appointed Kenneth Welt, president of Plantation-based Trustee Services Inc., as receiver. Welt is in charge of handling the operation and finances of the hotel pending resolution of the foreclosure.

In its foreclosure action, TIB states that on Oct. 8, DOC told the bank “that the property was about to shut its doors and close the hotel” unless “TIB agreed to fund protective advances in order to pay the management fees for the running of the hotel.”

The lawsuit also states that in the opinion of DOC and an independent consultant hired by Iceland-based Icebank — a lender with a junior mortgage on the hotel — “the outlook on the hotel survival is bleak” and without a subsid

DOC, Welt and Phil Hugh, the manager of DOC, could not be reached Friday for comment.