Oct. 19–The Staybridge Suites hotel on Kaliste Saloom Road is going up for auction by court order after the owners failed to make payments on a multimillion-dollar mortgage.
The owners, Lafayette attorneys Rickey Miniex and Clyde Simien, started construction on a 220-unit multifamily housing complex as the hotel mortgage went into default, according to public records.
Miniex and Simien owe $15 million to a mortgage securities corporation through their business entity, The O'Brien Group SPE LLC, according to a petition filed by U.S. Bank on behalf of the note holder. About 95 percent of the $13,900,000 principal amount remains outstanding, and the total amount due includes interest, late fees and a pre-payment premium.
Miniex and Simien did not respond to requests for comment left with a secretary on Thursday afternoon.
The hotel loan originated in October 2014, about one year before Miniex and Simien inked a $27 million construction contract for 250,000-square-foot apartment complex in south Lafayette. The partners secured another mortgage with BancorpSouth at the same time they signed the construction contract. The BancorpSouth mortgage document limits indebtedness to $50 million without specifying a principal amount.
The apartment complex, called La Veranda at Polly Lane, was completed last year, and its website is marketing one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The contractor, ICI Construction Inc., filed a $1.3 million lien on the property in April. An ICI Construction executive did not return a call for comment.
The U.S. Bank petition on the hotel loan does not specify the terms of repayment or the interest rate. A writ of seizure and sale was filed in 15th Judicial District Court on Oct. 5.
Miniex and Simien initially financed construction of the Staybridge Suites in 2008 with a $9.3 million G.E. Capital Financing loan, which the partners paid off around the same time they closed on the loan now in default.
The three-acre plot on which the hotel rests — acquired by Miniex and Simien in 2007 for $1 million — is near the busy intersection of Kaliste Saloom Road and Pinhook Road, where there are at least half a dozen major-flag hotels close to Lafayette Regional Airport.
