Middletown, Ohio Considers Purchase Offers for City-Owned Manchester Inn & Weatherwax Golf Course

Feb. 03–MIDDLETOWN — The future of the Manchester Inn & Conference Center and Weatherwax Golf Course could be decided at tonight’s Middletown City Council meeting.

The sale of both city-owned properties is on the agenda and council members said they anticipate “good discussion,” said Lawrence Mulligan Jr., the city’s mayor.

The city received two offers to purchase the Manchester Inn for $1. The 91-year-old hotel was purchased by the city in 2011 for $175,000 and officials were asking for a sale price of $325,000.

The proposals were submitted by investment groups, Historic Middletown Developers LLC, which includes a five-person development team, and Manchester LP, headed by William E. Grau from Coldwell Banker. Both groups promised that about $10 million in private and public funds would be spent to renovate the historic hotel.

Grau said his plan has a start date within six months and a completion date within 18 months, while the other plan has a start date of two years and completion in four years.

Council member Dan Picard said he was leaning toward supporting Grau’s proposal, though he was concerned that the ballroom would be eliminated. He called the ballroom “a huge asset.”

Both of the groups said for the project to be successful, state and federal funding would have to be secured to renovate the hotel that includes 78 guest rooms, meeting spaces, one of the area’s largest ballrooms and a large commercial kitchen.

Vice mayor Joe Mulligan said he was looking forward to more “details” before he made his decision regarding both properties. If they’re sold, he said, the city can get “back to basics.”

Picard said the sale of the Manchester and Weatherwax are “different stories” because he doesn’t expect the city to receive any money for the Manchester, while it needs to “recoup as much as we can” from the sale of the 36-hole Weatherwax Golf Course.

Council member Anita Scott Jones said it would be inappropriate for her to discuss the sale of the proprieties since those are two items expected in executive session.

The two offers for Weatherwax came from Hamilton auctioneer Myron Bowling, who offered $1.6 million, and from MiddCities in Cincinnati, which offered $225,000.