The Virginian-Pilot
©
PORTSMOUTH
The publicly funded Renaissance Hotel, a centerpiece of the city's downtown waterfront redevelopment effort, has new owners and new management.
Dallas-based Remington Lodging took over operations from Crestline Hotels & Resorts, the Renaissance's longtime management firm, on March 10 and brought in a new general manager, said Amy McDaniel, a Remington spokeswoman.
The City Council had not been briefed on the changes as of Monday. At least some members had heard informally weeks ago that a deal was in the works.
"We're looking forward to meeting with them," Mayor Kenny Wright said of the new managers.
The change happened in concert with the sale of the property. Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., also based in Dallas, bought the Renaissance, its conference center and 27 other hotels from Highland Hospitality.
The Hilton Garden Inn at Virginia Beach's Town Center was included in the deal. Remington also assumed management of that hotel from Crestline, McDaniel said. None of the other properties are in Virginia.
The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Highland Hospitality, a real estate investment trust based in McLean, was considering filing for bankruptcy protection after it had failed to repay an $868 million loan.
The Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel and Waterfront Conference Center opened in 2001 with an upfront public investment of about $39 million and a private investment of about $14 million. The project included a parking garage.
The city collects annual lease payments and tax revenue from the facility. However, the city's annual debt payment on the bonds that financed the project has exceeded revenues in recent years by about $1 million to $1.2 million, according to a profit and loss statement the city released last year.
McDaniel said Monday that it was premature to discuss any potential visible changes at the hotel. The new general manger is Michael Rice, who most recently held the same post at the Marriott at Research Triangle Park in Durham, N.C., she said.
"Remington will operate the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel & Waterfront Conference Center with the same high standards and commitment to quality and service as we do all of our properties," she said in an email.
Remington, which took over management of 17 of Ashland's new properties, now manages 67 hotels.
Dave Forster, (757) 446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Too Expensive
I was involved in finding a place to hold a High School reunion dinner. The hotel was over priced and poorly maintained. They do not want to be competative to get business since the management knows that the City of Portsmouth is supporting them. Maybe citizens of Portsmouth should get a discount since we are already paying for the hotel operation.
Typical of Portsmouth
Let's build stuff we don't need, raze stuff that still works (Holiday Inn, Portside etc) and start things that never get finished (the new Holiday Inn). The City Manager gave year end bonuses to hundreds of employees but now there appears to be a defecit in the budget...imagine that.
The problem with Portsmouth is they hire city leaders (leader for lack of better term) from outside the region. These outsiders think they know what's best for Portsmouth. Instead of listening to the citizens, business owners and it's own employees....these overpaid managers and dept. heads "know" what is best for Portsmouth.
Louise Lucas and her endeavors should be avoided at all costs....
The typical public/private development bad deal for taxpayers
This quote from the article says it all, "That income is more than off-set by the city's annual debt payment, which has exceeded revenues in recent years by about $1 million to $1.2 million." Why do we continue to allow our city governments to use our tax dollars to subsidize their developer friends and family's projects. It seems the developers always walk away with a healthy profit and the tax payers are left holding the debt bag and a half empty over-priced development in overbuilt areas of the cities. It's time for city governments to return to focusing on the infrastructure and core functions of the city and stop trying to play private developer with public funding. TERM LIMITS on elected and appointed seats of public trust may help.
THE BIG QUESTION IS:
Is it still a "white" hotel? I'd hate to think our former mayor was wrong in his assessment of the place. I know for a FACT that it's a White Elephant to every taxpaying citizen of Portsmouth. Hey, I'm just askin' here! Another fact is that The Virginian Pilot put all the numbers on the table for us when it was being proposed. Like Norfolk's choo-choo, it was a bad deal on paper back then, and it's a horrible deal in reality right now.
This stinks for the taxpayer.
Gee, the public puts up 73 oercent of the total money for the project, but does not have a controlling interest. No wonder so many public/private partnerships are favored by developers.
lucas
Haven't heard anything from Lucas lately, whats she been up to?
Hay David
Can you clear the money side of it up a little better? Did the city make anything off the sale? Or are they still collecting less then the payments? And if they front so much of the money why didn't they get anything?
Forward Observer
And just think...Louise Lucas almost corraled Portsmouth into an even worse deal!
Wow, great deal!
So help me, here. Portsmouth paid the majority of the money to build the hotel. The owner of the hotel, who was NOT covering the cost of the loan, has now sold the hotel to another controlling party. Who got paid back from this sale, or was that fine point not considered when it was built?
Are we offering the same level of professional accounting oversight that we provided for the original nTelos Wireless Pavilion management team?