The state has smacked a $435,000 lien on Interstate, the former management company for the Doubletree Hotel Bradley – two years after the hotel’s new owner ousted the firm from managing the facility.
The lien, filed earlier this summer, covers unpaid room and other taxes, and would have been large enough to land Interstate a spot among the 10 most delinquent taxpayers in the state last month.
Interstate was already listed as number 93 out of 100 on the most delinquent list, when it owed just under $150,000.
However, the company will not appear on the September list of most delinquent taxpayers, said spokesman Sarah Kaufman. The state uses the list to “shame” businesses into paying their taxes.
“Nobody wants to be known as a tax cheat,” Kaufman said.
Leaving The List
Although she did not speak directly about Interstate, Kaufman said that a company would be removed from the list only if it starts a repayment plan, the lien is removed or a company declares bankruptcy – something which Interstate, a publicly traded company based in Arlington, Va., has not done.
“We do intend to pay the taxes that are due once the audit process comes to a conclusion,” said Carrie McIntyre, a spokesman for Interstate. A recent internal audit of the company’s books found that taxes in Connecticut had been underpaid, McIntyre asserted, although she stopped short of saying the amount liened against Interstate was correct.
The company, however, has already paid “north of $100,000” to settle the lien, McIntyre claimed. State records show that the lien had not been paid off as of last week.
Interstate manages seven hotels in Connecticut, including five in the Hartford area: the Courtyard Hartford Manchester, Residence Inn Hartford Manchester, Hampton Inn in Meriden, Inn at Middletown and the Nathan Hale Inn and Conference Center in Mansfield. In all, Interstate operates 187 hotels in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and five countries.
The publicly traded company, which does business in Connecticut as Interstate Management Co., has battled earnings slowdown lately, as its second quarter earnings shrunk to $1.6 million, down from $3 million in the comparable period a year earlier.
A big reason for the drop was a decrease in the number of hotels managed by the company. Much of that decrease came from the sale of 11 hotels by The Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity firm which is a “major owner” in Interstate’s management portfolio.
Changing Hands
Great Neck, N.Y.-based United Capital Corp., the Windsor Locks’ hotel’s current owner, bought the Doubletree for an undisclosed price in November 2005 from MeriStar Hospitality Corp. – shortly before MeriStar was acquired by Blackstone.
United invested nearly $2 million renovating the 200-room hotel. Waterford Hotel Group, based in Waterford, was picked to be the new manager for the facility, which is 10 minutes outside of Hartford.
Since the lien is against the management company and not the hotel, the hotel property itself is not considered “attached,” said officials from the Department of Revenue Services and the Secretary of State’s office, where the lien is filed.
“This is an issue with prior management, not us or the current owner,” said Lisa Beers, a Waterford spokesman.
