Nov. 07–After years of trying, owners of the Renaissance Grand have found a buyer for the financially struggling convention hotel in downtown St. Louis.
Bondholders who have owned the 917-room hotel since foreclosing on it in 2009 said Thursday they have a deal to sell the hotel to 800 Washington LLC.
Haberhill LLC, of Potomac, Md., would serve as the hotel’s operating partner, officials said.
The $26 million deal excludes the hotel complex’s suites portion in the former Lennox Hotel across Washington Avenue from the Renaissance Grand.
But Paul Ricotta, the Boston lawyer for bond trustee UMB Bank, said that sale of the suites portion also is pending. He declined to identify the prospective buyer but said the hope is that both sales will conclude simultaneously by the end of year. Combined, the two portions have nearly 1,100 rooms.
A hotel consultant said the Renaissance Grand sale bodes well for the hotel and the city’s convention business. New ownership should assure convention bookers, who plan meetings years in advance, that the Renaissance Grand will remain open for the long term, said Gary Andreas, principal at H&H Consulting Inc., of Chesterfield.
Andreas said $26 million is a good price for the Renaissance Grand.
“It’s a whole lot more reasonable than what (the owners) were saying about three or four years ago when they were turning up their noses at offers of $45 million,” he said.
The new owners will likely make room upgrades and generally “put some lipstick” on the hotel, Andreas added.
Still undetermined is whether a new owner of the complex’s suites portion, which closed this year, would reopen it as a hotel or convert it to apartments, Andreas said.
The former Lennox lacks a laundry and food service, said the consultant, adding that those services could be contracted for.
Holders of $98 million in hotel bonds foreclosed on the Renaissance Grand in 2009 after the previous owners, Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Historic Restoration Inc., defaulted on a $3.5 million interest payment.
The Renaissance Grand opened in 2002 with heavy public subsidies. The notice to bondholders filed Thursday said the sale to 800 Washington LLC depends on reaching a new management agreement with Marriott — which runs the hotel — a new redevelopment agreement with the city and a new parking garage lease.
Maggie Crane, Mayor Francis Slay’s spokeswoman, declined to say what might be included in a new redevelopment agreement.
Sale of the suites portion seemed imminent this year when the bond trustee said it had a buyer. But the deal never happened. The latest notice to bondholders said a new deal must be reached “in the very near term” or the trustee will resume shopping the hotel to other potential buyers.
Efforts to reach Haberhill officials were unsuccessful. Haberhill has hotels in Hawaii, Minneapolis, New York and Washington, D.C. Its managing director, Douglas Greene, is a former executive with Marriott Corp. and Host Hotels and Resorts, formerly Host Marriott Corp.
