The owners of the Crowne Plaza hotel just north of downtown Hartford have filed for bankruptcy, the latest blow to the city’s hospitality industry already hard hit in the recession, The Hartford Courant reports.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy case is a debt reorganization, not a liquidation; the 350-room hotel near I-84 remains open for business. The company that manages the hotel, Packard Hospitality Group, would not comment on whether the hotel will continue to operate, although there is no sign that it is closing.
The case covers more than $10 million in debt, including unpaid sales and property taxes, according to the documents filed Aug. 18 in federal court in California.
The filing was made by CHOA Vision LLC, which stands for Christian Hotel Owners Association, a group of primarily Korean American investors led by Chan Soo Cho, according to the group’s website. The telephone number listed on the website is assigned to a cellphone in Escondido, Calif. A woman who answered said no one was available to comment on the case.
CHOA bought the 38-year-old hotel in March 2007 for $20.2 million from RD Hartford LLC. The city’s property assessment last year for the land and hotel was $9.7 million.
The city is one of the major listed creditors, with more than $1.2 million in unpaid property taxes from 2007 and 2008. That money actually is owed to a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, not the city, because the city sold the liens.
In addition, the hotel owes $486,000 for 2009 taxes not shown in the filing, city Tax Collector Marc Nelson said.
The state government also is a creditor, with $300,000 in unpaid sales taxes. It was unclear from the filing whether that debt was from room taxes — money that presumably was paid by guests — or from purchases made by the hotel. The bankruptcy does not list a mortgage holder as a creditor.
The bankruptcy filing is the latest in a string of troubles for the city’s hotel operators, hit by declining occupancy because of less business travel in the recession.
