Sixty-three years after their parents first bought it, the three siblings who own the Hawthorne Inn have sold the hotel portion of the Berlin Turnpike complex for $3.2 million, the second of two transactions that have netted $7 million since 2006.
In February, the siblings, Winifred “Winnie” LaMothe, and Robert and Glenna Grelak, sold the 69-room, two-story hotel and its five-acre lot to Kanji Partners, a real estate company owned by the Shah family of Berlin, which also owns the Hampton Inn in Sturbridge, Mass., and the Howard Johnson in Lenox, Mass.
Thirteen months earlier, the three sold 25 acres of land next to the Hawthorne Inn in Berlin to Toll Brothers Inc., a Philadelphia -based developer that’s currently building 94 units of age 55-and-over housing on the spot.
‘Emotional Sale’
LaMothe said that she and her brother are approaching retirement and wanted to get out of the business, while their younger sister wanted to continue with it. So the three agreed to sell the land and hotel, but keep the restaurant. The trio will run the eatery for the foreseeable future, LaMothe said.
It was an emotional sale for the three, LaMothe said. Their parents, John and Adele Grelak, bought the Hawthorne Inn in 1944, when it had just 75 seats and a few rooms for rent on the second and third floors. Over the years, they added to and renovated the restaurant and hotel, which ultimately grew to a 550-person banquet facility.
“When we sold the land we didn’t think twice about it,” LaMothe said, “But when we sold the hotel, the three of us just cried.”
LaMothe said that she anticipates working closely with the hotel’s new owners. About half of their business is banquet, she said, and many of them are weddings. That means a good portion of their customers often have a need for nearby lodging.
Sagar Shah, who manages the hotel, said his family jumped at the chance to own the local landmark. “We have always recognized the name, and it was a great opportunity for us,” he said.
Shah said there are no plans to change the look of the hotel.
