The news today on the Wheeler Road FourPoints property is both good and bad. The good news is that the property has been sold by Grubarges-Burlington LLC to either Magna Hospitality group or a company that they are representing. There is no public selling price as of yet. The property is currently going through the liquidation of accessories and is scheduled for a major renovation. This information is according to the V.P of accounting Zita Ephrem in a telephone interview with her today. Ms. Ephrem went on to say that the new firm intends to open the newly renovated hotel sometime in mid 2005.
Magna Hospitality is located in East Greenwich Rhode Island and owns and operates 17 hotel properties in very strong hotel markets around the country. The company was formed in 1998 and is lead by William F. Burruss Jr. Although a young company it appears as though its roster of executives is loaded with veterans of the hospitality business. The entire company history and roster of executives can be viewed at www.magnahospitality.com
The bad news is that the current assessed value of the property indicates quite graphically what has transpired in this market place over the last several years. This 179-room property was last sold at a reported price of 14 million dollars in 2000. Since that time the property has had a steadily declining value on the assessor’s books to the current fiscal 2005 value of 7.6 million dollars. At the current commercial industrial rate of $28/1000 that equates to approximately $210,000 in property taxes. It certainly will be interesting to see what purchase price the property changed hands at this time around
