Eastland Park Hotel may close during 'massive' renovation - Press Herald
From staff reports
PORTLAND - The owners of the Eastland Park Hotel are looking at possibly closing the entire hotel for an extended period to accommodate a major renovation of the 84-year-old building.
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The 84-year-old Eastland Park Hotel on High Street in Portland was sold in March and will be renovated.
John Ewing/Staff Photographer
Bruce Wennerstrom, the general manager of the hotel, said no final decision had been made on a timetable for the renovation or whether it would involve closing part or all of the hotel. A decision could come in the next week to 10 days. Wennerstrom said the renovation being considered is "massive."
That means the renovation won't come until after the first of the year, because the hotel owners made an agreement with city officials to give 90-day notice to tenants of about two dozen apartments in the hotel before they have to move out. That notice has not been made, according to city officials.
The owners also agreed to give $2,500 to each of the 29 tenants to help with moving costs.
RockBridge Partners, which bought the 202-room hotel in March, said from the start that it planned to renovate the building but hasn't indicated the extent of the work or when it might start. After the deal closed, a RockBridge executive said the hotel needed "a substantial and extensive upgrading."
The fate of the apartment tenants had been an issue at the time of the sale. The city usually requires developers or property owners to pay a fee of nearly $60,000 per unit for any apartments they take off the market. The money goes into a fund used to help finance low-income apartments.
But city officials said RockBridge couldn't be assessed the fee because the ordinance allowed an exemption if the unit was being returned to a previous use -- and the apartments were being turned back into hotel rooms. That loophole has since been closed, but city officials couldn't apply it retroactively.
30 Sep, 2011
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