Trigild Adds Ramada Plaza Hotel to Property Management Portfolio
EHotel, which features business-friendly high-speed Internet access and fax machines, appears a far less friendly business to actually operate.
A request for foreclosure of property will be contested Aug. 31 in San Diego Superior Court for the hotel, which is located Downtown.
On Aug. 3, J. Michael Schaefer filed a complaint stating that, other than a $100,000 down payment, he has yet to see any payments since he sold the property last February to Robert Lauer.
There are two mortgages on the property that total more than $3.2 million.
Lauer denied Schaefer’s allegations. He said he plans to sue Schaefer for nondisclosure and unfair business practices. It will be a “multi-million dollar” lawsuit, he said.
Schaefer, a former San Diego city councilman, has been jailed for failing to maintain a building he owned in Los Angeles and spousal abuse, according to newspaper accounts.
Schaefer now lives in Las Vegas, where he is running for justice of the peace.
Lauer said finding financing for the hotel in the current market has been difficult. At one point, the hotel was slated to open in late May.
Having invested about $1.5 million of his own money, he had three of the building’s five stories renovated, Lauer said.
Lauer said he had been renting completed rooms since May to test the product. The business had come from other hotels’ overflow.
Lauer stopped operations in mid-August, but has rented three rooms as apartments, he said. He’s considering converting the rooms to live-work lofts.
Lauer didn’t comment on whether he has explored selling the property, but said he doesn’t want to sell the building.
Lauer claimed the property will be worth $7 million when completed and $5.5 million as is, quoting a certified appraiser.
Robert Rauch, managing director of InterBank Brener Hospitality and an analyst of the local industry, said Lauer’s concept of a high-tech hotel were “right on track,” but the project appears to be under-financed and the location at 12th St. and A St. doesn’t currently suit a first-class hotel.
This year, Rauch considered financing and managing the eHotel, but it wasn’t feasible, he said. He values the property at $4 million in its current state, and $4.5 million to $5 million when renovated.
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New Management: Trigild Corp. will be operating Ramada Plaza Hotel in Hotel Circle. The 182-room property was sold in mid-July to a Los Angeles couple.
The couple, who did not want to be identified, hired Trigild to manage it for five years, said Judy Hoffman, Trigild’s vice president of marketing.
Sorrento Valley-based Trigild also took over a new turnaround project, the 142-room Columbia Dome Hotel in Columbia, Mo. Trigild is managing the full-service hotel for an Idaho-based lender and expects the deal to last for a year, Hoffman said.
Checking In: On Sept. 14, San Diego mayoral and City Council candidates will take part in a forum directed at the hospitality industry. San Diego Magazine editor Tom Blair will be moderating the event, which will take place at the Town and Country Resort Hotel & Convention Center. Upbeat news for SeaWorld San Diego and Legoland California comes from Yesawich Pepperdine & Brown and Yankelovich Partners, based in Orlando, Fla., and Norwalk, Conn., respectively. The companies’ research indicated theme parks were a desirable element of vacation travel for a growing percentage of leisure travelers. This year, the figure is up to 43 percent, up from 40 percent in 1999.
The deadline for the next tourism & hospitality column is Aug. 31. Rodrigues can be reached at (858) 277-6359, ext. 107, or via E-mail at trodrigues@sdbj.com.
