PINE BLUFF -- Members of the Pine Bluff City Council agree on the importance of refurbishing and reopening the downtown Plaza Hotel.
Where they would get the money is another matter.
Alderman Steven Mays said the council should go into its emergency reserve for the $850,000 that is needed to purchase the 200-room hotel from owner Bruce Rahmani.
Mays said it is wasteful for the hotel, which opened in 1988, to wither away. He contends the hotel is just another example of the challenges facing downtown Pine Bluff, which include the large number of trains that go through the area daily and the bricks from collapsed buildings blocking parts of streets.
"First of all, the City Council needs to agree that the city needs the hotel to upgrade our downtown and help it thrive again for our citizens," Mays said. "I feel like the Plaza Hotel would be a good anchor for rebuilding and re-establishing our driving and walking traffic in downtown."
Mayor Debe Hollingsworth cautioned last week that aldermen should think long and hard before dipping into the city's reserve funds to restore a hotel.
"We would be taking all our funding out of reserves ... and there are none of us who are experts in the hotel business," Hollingsworth said. "That is why I don't think the city should be going into the hotel business anytime soon."
The funding needed for the hotel wouldn't end with the $850,000 being sought by Rahmani, who has owned the hotel since 2007. Other funding would be needed to make it functional again, and Hollingsworth said those costs could be high, based on an appraisal she has already seen.
Alderman Bill Brumett agreed that the city doesn't have the money needed to make the hotel ready for reopening. He said some people are trying to negotiate with the owner for the city to buy the hotel and run it, but he said that isn't in the city's best interest.
"We need to hire management to come in and do analysis," he said. "We believe it would take a new owner $1 million to $2.5 million to put a banner across the front door for a major franchise to open the hotel."
Brumett said the city already faces the burden of keeping its more than 40-year-old convention center operational.
"It takes every dime from our Advertising and Promotions to keep that going," Brumett said. "We get 2 percent from the hamburger tax and 3 percent from the hotel tax. While I was on the A&P Commission, we did a bond issue and got funds to put a new roof on it and upgraded a lot of doors and windows and insulation.
"We did massive work, and now the convention center is in pretty good shape."
Brumett said the city would be hard-pressed to ask taxpayers to support another bond issue to help reopen the Plaza Hotel, adding that people are already talking about a bond issue to renovate the city's library.
"We can only do $10 million in bonds per year," he said. "There is not any wiggle room there for a long time."
Rahmani said the hotel is in good shape and in working condition. He said he has spent $4 million on the Plaza Hotel since buying the property in 2007, adding that he is ready to sell the hotel because of what it is costing him each month.
Rahmani, who said he's spending $25,000 a month on the closed hotel in taxes, insurance and other costs, also operates hotels include the Ramada Plaza and Convention Center in Northglenn, Colo.
"I still have mortgage payments and all that and someone living there to watch the property," he said.
Mays said the city could afford the $850,000 price tag if it dipped into its reserves and refused requests from city departments for additional money.
"It saddens me to see this hotel all closed up like that," he said. "It is in a good location, right there with the convention center. If we own them both, we can revitalize them both.
"I'm for whatever it will take for the hotel and the convention center to be thriving and making money."
Bob Purvis has served as executive director of the Pine Bluff Convention Center for the past 18 years. He has seen owners of the Plaza Hotel come and go, but he said they have lacked the commitment it would take to get the refurbishing project off the ground.
"It is going to take some serious renovations," Purvis said. "It was a very nice property back when it was a Wilson World [in 1988], but the last two or three owners have not made an investment in people.
"They need to invest in having management and marketing, and I don't see those things going on."
Council members last Monday discussed having a third-party appraisal and setting up a time to tour the property as a group to see what work needed to be done.
"What they need is to bring a professional here to remodel it and have a professional management group say, 'OK, it is going to take $10,000 a room to completely remodel the hotel,'" Purvis said.
"You can certainly remodel this one cheaper than you can build a new one. It is in very good condition.
"It won't be easy, but I think we could work together and build it up."
State Desk on 06/27/2016