Toledo’s Grand Plaza Hotel & Conference Center downtown could be sold next month at a receiver auction scheduled to begin Nov. 4.
Currently unaffiliated with any chain, the 14-story hotel at 444 N. Summit St. has been under the control of a court-appointed receiver, Valor Hospitality Partners of Atlanta, since March 3.
The move to receivership came at the request of a lender, RREF WB Acquisitions LLC of New York, which provided loans to the owner, Paradise Hospitality Inc. of Fullerton, Calif.
RREF filed suit against Paradise Hospitality in March in U.S. District Court in Toledo for failing to meet terms of loans RREF acquired in 2011 when Paradise went through a bankruptcy reorganization.
CBRE Capital Markets, a national real estate broker, is handling the auction of the 241-room hotel, whose last affiliation was with the Best Western Premier chain. Its ties with Best Western International were severed in October of 2013 after just eight months.
An inspection of the property for potential bidders will take place at 1 p.m. Friday. Auction bidders will be required to provide a $250,000 earnest deposit in order to participate.
For those who register to bid, the deadline for submitting a qualified bid will be noon on Nov. 4.
If more than one qualified bid is received, the receiver will conduct a second auction for the qualified bidders at 11 a.m. on Nov. 7 at the law firm of Roetzel & Andress in Toledo.
The federal court has ordered the receiver to close any sale by Nov. 17 if it receives a winning qualified bid. The minimum bid was not made public.
Built in 1985 as a Hotel Sofitel to serve clients of Owens Illinois, Inc., which at the time was downtown, the 29-year-old hotel has gone through many changes in affiliations over its lifetime.
The hotel got a $10 million upgrade in 2008 from Paradise Hospitality, a move intended to secure an affiliation with the Crowne Plaza chain.
Since its opening it has been the Hotel Sofitel, the Marriott Portside, the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, the Crowne Plaza, the Wyndham, the Toledo Riverfront Hotel, the Crowne Plaza again, the Grand Plaza, the Best Western Premier Grand Plaza, and most recently, the Grand Plaza again.
In its promotion of the property to would-be bidders, CBRE said the hotel remains a good fit for several higher end chains.
Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-0724-6128.
First Published October 21, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
