HOT SPRINGS -- The Majestic Hotel complex, including the pile of rubble from the "yellow brick" building that burned in February, has been placed on the auction block.
The pile of rubble has remained along Park Avenue since the burned-out building was razed Feb. 28 and March 1.
A cleanup plan for the site has been approved by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, and work on the plan was to begin in the middle of October, according to a Environmental Quality spokesman.
Don Erler, a senior adviser/real estate auctioneer with Sperry Van Ness, said they were approached by Garrison Hassenflu, manager of Park Residences Development LLC, which owns the property, about offering the Majestic Hotel properties "as is," with a starting bid of $1.25 million.
"There was a fire back in the spring and consequently, there are three buildings left -- the Lanai Tower, Lanai Suites and the red brick Majestic Hotel, as well as a pile of rubble from the old hotel," Erler said Monday afternoon. "They were interested in potentially doing an auction to see if we can find someone who will pick that [property] up with the idea of redeveloping the property."
He said Sperry Van Ness has an annual fourth-quarter auction for people who would like to get property sold and off their books before the end of the year, and the Majestic Hotel is one offering of about 35 properties that are part of that national auction.
"It's not an absolute sale. It's a reserve sale and the opening bid is $1.25 million. The previous asking price, I think, was $3.1 million, so they are going to let it go for substantially less than that," Erler said.
Erler said he believes the cleanup plan for the rubble will be passed on to a new owner to see through.
"He [Hassenflu] is selling the property in its current condition," he said.
"It's an attractive opportunity for someone and it has a very attractive reserve price of less than half what they were asking."
Erler said the auction of the 5.2-acre site will close at 3 p.m. Nov. 12.
Hassenflu was unavailable for comment late Monday.
Metro on 10/14/2014