Cosmopolitan Hotel in Limbo

The Cosmopolitan Hotel in downtown Fayetteville, at 15 stories the tallest building in the city, is celebrating its 30th year of operation.

But there is enough gray area to cover 50 elephants when discussing its immediate future.

Getting comment from anyone verifying rumblings the hotel could have a new owner – and imminently – has been virtually impossible.

To wit, during a recent interview, general manager Alex Jerde politely declined to discuss a potential light at the end of the tunnel.

What he did emphasize were a number of talking points that should indicate to the public a clear fact – the Cosmopolitan remains open for business.

Jerde said you would think otherwise walking down most streets in Fayetteville.

“People assume we shut down a long time ago,” Jerde said. “Our restaurant and lounge is open; never shut down.

“We still have a fair percentage of guest rooms we rent out on a daily basis. We have banquets with 400 people here, and those people leave and go out in the community … how is it that people think we’re closed?  I don’t understand that.”

The negative vibe stems from the hotel’s financial problems of the past three years – more specifically, the troubles of the previous owners, John Nock and Richard Alexander.

The two Fayetteville businessmen bought the hotel in 2006, but the financing for their multimillion-dollar renovation effort was stopped when regulators shut down their lender – ANB Financial NA – in May 2008.

The hotel passed into receivership last year and was acquired in December 2010 by ANB Ventures LLC, a company created by the FDIC to sort through the loans of the failed lender.

If there was news to share, it’s hard to blame Jerde for not doing so, at least not yet.

Until definite details of a sale are given or concrete renovation plans are presented, the public perception would likely be akin to the little boy who cried wolf.

When we see cranes, we’ll believe it. When we see rolls of carpet, we’ll believe it.

The hotel began as a Hilton in 1981 and, according to a September 2001 article in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, the 15-story, 235-room building opened just in time to house actors and crew for “The Blue and the Gray,” a television mini-series being filmed in Fayetteville. Gregory Peck and Stacy Keach stayed at the Hilton during the filming.

It became a Radisson in 2001 when Regency Hotel Management, which bought the Fayetteville hotel in 1992 from Square One Association Inc., decided to switch to a Radisson franchise. The Fayetteville hotel was Regency’s only Hilton.

Presently, the property is being marketed extensively and is listed with the Bentonville office of Colliers International. 

According to information gathered for the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s annual list of the area’s largest hotels, which starts on p. 11, the Cosmopolitan ranked 15th with $1.73 million in revenue in 2010.

That figure is based on sales tax collected by the City of Fayetteville. The $1.73 million is down 5.5 percent from the $1.83 million in 2009 estimated revenue.

The list also indicates the property has 235 rooms available. That is the same number of rooms that has been reported in each of the three previous years.

The Cosmopolitan lists 14,000 additional SF for meeting or convention space. Rates range from $99 to $199 nightly, which is comparable for its closest competitors on the list.