Fort Smith Holiday Inn Aims to Reflag as DoubleTree by Hilton
by July 20, 2015 12:02 am 158 views
The former Holiday Inn at City Center on Rogers Avenue in Fort Smith is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation, and its owners are planning to reflag the property to a DoubleTree by Hilton.
An application has been submitted for the rebranding. In the meantime, the nine-story, 255-room hotel will be temporarily named The Executive Hotel at City Center.
Arkansas Hospitality Group LLC, a company led by The Thrash Group of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, purchased the hotel from Hotel West II LLP in November for $3.1 million.
The Thrash Group and its president, Ike Thrash, also own The Chancellor Hotel in downtown Fayetteville.
Thrash and partner Sam Alley, chairman and CEO of VCC Constructions in Little Rock, bought the high-rise property when it was the Cosmopolitan Hotel in 2011 and reopened the following year, after a $16 million renovation.
At the Executive Hotel, work crews have put in a new HVAC system, and the next phase of the renovation will begin in August — with a new elevator and boiler system high on the agenda, said Sue McCormick, area vice president of operations at HP Hotel Management Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama.
HP Hotel Management operates both the Executive Hotel and The Chancellor.
The full cost for renovating the 29-year-old hotel is projected to be between $8 million and $10 million, she said.
Hotel West II purchased the property in 2006 for $7.2 million from Hotel Ventures East LP, according to county data.
The property appraised for $25.9 million this year.