PINE BLUFF -- The fate of a shuttered hotel that's attached to the Pine Bluff Convention Center remains in limbo after sitting vacant since midsummer.
Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said the city has no plans to raise its original offer of $500,000 for the property after Plaza Hotel owner Bruce Rahmani of Colorado rejected it late last month.
The mayor and other city leaders said they agree that reopening the hotel is important to the financial future of the convention center, however.
"Right now, we are just taking a wait-and-see approach," Hollingsworth said.
"We understand that Rahmani purchased the property in foreclosure, and we are wondering if he plans to keep up his loan payments on a property that isn't bringing in any income. Perhaps, if it were foreclosed on again, someone could pick it up for a reasonable price."
The mayor hinted but didn't confirm that the city would bid on the property should it go into foreclosure again.
Alderman Glen Brown Sr. said Rahmani invested in the city when he purchased the hotel, adding that "we need to discuss negotiating prices." But Brown stopped short of saying exactly how far the city would be willing to go.
Rahmani closed the Plaza Hotel on July 28, saying the city-owned convention center has been uncooperative in helping to schedule guest stays and citing a recent theft of $25,000 from the property's office. The theft is still under investigation, according to officials with the Pine Bluff Police Department.
Rahmani scoffed at the city's $500,000 offer and said he wouldn't take less than $2 million for the five-story, 200-room property.
Rahmani had originally offered the hotel to the city for $3 million or a $20,000-per-month lease, saying that he would be willing to negotiate on that offer but would likely not go below $2 million. He said he paid $1.85 million for the hotel about six years ago and funded a $2 million renovation at that time.
But over the past few years, the hotel has become run-down, with many guests complaining about its cleanliness and poor services, according to several hotel review websites. The hotel originally opened in 1989 as Wilson World and was considered one of the nicest properties in the city for several years, city officials said.
It was also briefly part of the Ramada chain before the company removed its association with the property after it became run-down.
Hollingsworth said that the city wouldn't pay more than the appraised value for the property, which is $612,000, according to the most recent amount provided by the Jefferson County assessor's office.
Regardless of a sale or lease price, Rahmani has told the city that the hotel needs at least $1 million in upgrades before it could be reopened.
Bob Purvis, who manages the convention center, said recently that the number of conventions and events at the facility has dwindled since Rahmani took ownership of the Plaza Hotel. But he cautioned that "there is no way to directly correlate the two."
"All I can tell you is what people have told me about the hotel and what I have seen at the hotel. It was never up to standards you would see in other places with convention center hotels," Purvis said.
Purvis said the economy could also be at fault, as many people no longer have disposable income to rent a large space for a family gathering or function.
Purvis said that six years before Rahmani's ownership of the Plaza Hotel, there were about 34 reunions and 125 conventions and meetings per year at the convention center. During Rahmani's ownership, Purvis said the number of reunions has dropped to about 18 per year, while the number of conventions and meetings has dropped to about 75.
State Desk on 10/04/2015