Sale pending for Edmonton Sutton Place

Downtown Edmonton's iconic Sutton Place Hotel is about to be sold, with a deal near completion.
"I am hoping whoever buys us realizes the value of this hotel, in terms of people and the contributions we have made over the past seven years," general manager Richard Wong said.
The 313-room luxury hotel has been a supporter of many events, and Wong, who is president of the Downtown Farmers' Market, board chair of the Pilgrims Hospice Society and president of the Hong Kong Business Association (Edmonton), said he hopes the hotel will continue to play a role in the community.

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Investor wants to foreclose on two Baltimore hotel sites

A private investment group is looking to foreclose on and sell two historic downtown Baltimore buildings, both of which were being converted into hotels when their owner halted the projects.
A group calling itself RL BB Financial LLC asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Dec. 13 for permission to sell the buildings — 207 E. Redwood St. and 101 N. Charles St. — to collect on about $28.7 million in unpaid mortgage debt.
RL BB Financial claims selling the properties is the only solution since neither structure is generating income.

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Investors flip two S.F. hotels

Newly arrived hotel investor Haiyi has snapped up two more San Francisco inns after a frenetic 14 days that saw the properties change hands twice.
The hotels were two of Personality Hotels’ three foreclosed properties in San Francisco, the Hotel Metropolis and Hotel Vertigo. They were sold, along with Personality’s Hotel Frank, to Aspen Capital Management and its capital partner, AEW Capital Management, for an undisclosed price on Dec. 1.
On Dec. 15, just before San Francisco’s transfer tax increased, Aspen sold the Metropolis and Vertigo to Haiyi, a San Francisco-based hotel division of Portland, Ore.’s American Pacific International Capital.

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Jamaica - New hotels pop up from Kingston to Montego Bay

The Spanish Court Hotel is the first new resort to open in

Jamaica's capital city of Kingston in three decades.

The Jamaica tourist board’s slogan slyly suggests a reason to visit:  “Once you go, you know.”
But with all the new hotel developments on the Caribbean island this season, even those who regularly go may not be in the know anymore. The offerings run the gamut: from boutique properties to colossal chain hotels, noteworthy upgrades to grand-scale developments poised to change the face of the island.
In Kingston, the opening of the 107-room Spanish Court Hotel marked the capital city’s first new resort in 30 years. Constructed wholly by Jamaican artisans, it’s an ultramodern, boutique-style property that owner Christopher Issa says will “put Kingston on the map as a tourist destination.”
The Spanish Court’s SoHo-style lobby, by local designer Alison Antrobus, eschews Caribbean-style wicker and florals in favor of bean-shaped white leather sofas, Martin Fluss chandeliers, animal-print accents and jatobá wood floors. Chic, minimalist rooms feature flat-screen TVs and iPod docks.

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Former Trump hotel in Fort Lauderdale still mired in litigation

More than a year after it was set to open, only maintenance crews and real estate types appear to be making regular use of the former Trump International Hotel & Tower on Fort Lauderdale’s beach.

The 298-unit condo-hotel is beset by litigation, including two class action lawsuits from buyers and a foreclosure by a government-chosen successor to the original lender, Corus Bank.

During a Dec. 21 hearing, attorneys for the lender, Donald J. Trump and two of his companies argued that claims against them in one of the class action cases should be dismissed. A decision by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan was pending at deadline.

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Food critic outed and ousted from restaurant

Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila ducked into Red Medicine, a new Beverly Hills restaurant, for some modern Vietnamese food the other night, but got nothing to eat. Instead, she was outed and ousted, her party turned away, her picture snapped and critic's anonymity shredded by the restaurateur himself.

"I always knew at some point a blogger or somebody would take a secret photo. But I never expected that a restaurateur would stick a camera in my face," Virbila said Wednesday.

Virbila was rebuffed, Red Medicine managing partner Noah Ellis said, because "Irene is not the person any of us wanted reviewing our restaurant. … This was not a rash decision."

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Linchris Hotel Corp. buys the Hilton Scranton

SCRANTON – A Massachusetts hotel corporation has paid $16 million to buy the Hilton Scranton Hotel & Conference Center on Adams Avenue in the city’s downtown.

With the purchase, Hanover, Mass.-based Linchris Hotel Corp. made its first step into the Pennsylvania marketplace. It was made in partnership with Blue Vista Capital Management of Chicago.
Hotel General Manager Brian Anderson said customers will notice added value and better service but little else. The name will stay put.

The 175-room hotel is Green Seal certified and an IACC-approved conference center featuring 19 meeting rooms, a 74-seat amphitheater and a grand ballroom accommodating up to 500 guests.

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$8 million buys Belleview Biltmore

BELLEAIR — The new owner of the Belleview Biltmore said his group paid a little more than $8 million to buy the hotel and its assets.

The hotel's assets include the historic Biltmore, its 136-acre golf club on Indian Rocks Road and the Cabana Club on Sand Key.

Raphael Ades, a Miami investor, said he plans to work full time after the new year to deal with the hotel's roof problems and improve the golf club.

A lien was filed by the town of Belleair last year after the owner was fined for the hotel's dilapidated roof

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$20m resort proposal awaited for Cat Island Bahamas

The Government is awaiting a $20 million proposal from an Italian-based resort operator for a four-phase, high-end boutique hotel development at Orange Creek in Cat Island, Tribune Business can reveal, which will be targeted at the European travel market.
 
Michael Scott, the attorney and Hotel Corporation chairman, told this newspaper that the Government was awaiting details of Equinox SA's plans for what is likely to be a 40-room small hotel, plus a small attached real estate component featuring 45 high-end villas and cottages.
 
Pledging that there would be "sufficient spin-off and trickle down for Cat Island" in terms of business opportunities for Bahamian-owned businesses and entrepreneurs, Mr Scott said Equinox SA's plans - for which a formal proposal is now awaited - tied in perfectly with the Government's vision of high-end, low density tourism development in the Family Islands.

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Jerome (Arizona) Grand Hotel Files $8 Million Lawsuit Against the Town

The quaint historic mining town that's a popular tourist destination with Phoenicians has been nailed with an $8 million-plus lawsuit.

Brought upon by the Jerome Grand Hotel, the legal action is in response to the town government's decision to revoke the historic lodging spot's certificate of occupancy due to the hotel's "unsafe" conditions, according to the town manager's official press release.

As of the time this post was published, a court date had not been set.

During inspections performed in the summer, Jerome's fire chief Rusty Blair and chief building official David R. Steiver found that alterations within the building had taken place without the proper permitting and that the hotel didn't contain sufficient fire and emergency exits. The release, dated December 8, states that the Grand Hotel's owners "have been unwilling to meet those requirements, thus resulting in complete closure of the hotel."

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Islay suffers body blow as golf resort goes into administration

No-one who has played the Machrie championship golf course on Islay is ever likely to forget it.

This 71-par course is one of the most challenging but beautiful courses anywhere in the world which is why golfers everywhere will groan with disappointment at the news, just announced, that the Machrie Hotel and Golf Links has gone into administration.

 

But, however bad the blow may be to golfers from around the world, the impact on the people of this Hebridean isle will be even greater.

With 16 rooms in the main hotel and 15 chalets, the Machrie Hotel is the biggest hotel on the island. It also is the only venue with the draw of a golf course – routinely named as one of the best 100 in the world – a draw strong enough to attract visitors to stay and play.

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Dubai Asset Sales Pick Up as $20 Billion in Debt Comes Due 2011

Sales of Dubai’s holdings are gaining momentum a year after the emirate’s corporate flagship shook world markets with plans to freeze payments on $24.9 billion in loans.

DP World Ltd., the port operator, agreed yesterday to sell 75 percent of its Australian unit, raising $1.5 billion. Borse Dubai Ltd., which controls Dubai’s two stock exchanges, raised $672 million Dec. 16 by selling about half its stake in Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., owner of the second-largest U.S. equity exchange. Both companies said they will use the proceeds to pay down debt.

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Amend law on alcohol, Kenya hotels plead

Hotel operators now want the new Alcoholic Drinks Control Act amended to scrap the rule that puts a time limit on sale of alcohol.

The Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya (Perak), said the hospitality industry would suffer massive losses due to the time limit.

According to the new law, bars can only sell alcohol between 5pm and 11pm on weekdays and between 2pm and 11pm on weekends and public holidays.

“Employers who operate on three work shifts will be forced to do away with one for economical reasons. This will result to loss of jobs for thousands of Kenyans,” said Perak chief executive Sam Ikwaye.

The regulations governing the law were published last week and immediately came into force, dealing a heavy blow on alcohol sellers.

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Erawan invests B10bn on mid-range tier

The Erawan Group, the listed hotel company, plans to invest 10 billion baht to develop and take over hotels in the mid-priced and budget segments after seeing bright market prospects and the growth of low-cost airlines.

The company projects revenue contribution from mid-priced and budget hotels will rise to more than half of total revenue in the next five years, said president and CEO Kasama Punyagupta.
"We will focus on selective locations in established destinations where we already have customers and understand the markets," he said.
The company is experienced in the economy segment, with seven Ibis hotels already opened in key tourist spots.
Ibis's performance was strong in the first seven months of this year even as the tourism sector suffered from local political problems. Economy of scale is an important factor to keep operating and investment costs per room low

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Spanish Hotel Chain Ratifies Leadership in Cuba

(Hospitality Business News) Spanish hotel chain Sol Melia ratified in 2010 its leadership in the Cuban tourist industry with the opening of its 25th hotel, the  Meliá Buenavista, in Santa Maria Key, and now runs 21 percent of the Cuba’s lodgement capacity.

 President of Sol Melia Cuba Operation Gabriel Garcia said the Spanish chain is interested in expanding its operations in Cuba, where 31 percent of the four and five star hotels are run by them.

In 20 years of operations Melia has lodged over 50 million tourists in Cuba and has contributed some 3.7 billion dollars.

He said that 30 percent of the two million visitors a year to Cuba prefer to stay at the Melia hotels.

The chain has received several international and domestic awards for the quality of its services, especially for the work of its best hotels that include Melia Cohiba in Havana, Meliá Varadero and Tryp Península Varadero in that beach resort, among others.

On May 10, 1990, Melia started its operations in Cuba with the opening of the Sol Palmeras in Varadero. Nowadays it has 10,444 rooms throughout the country.