WestCoast Hospitality Selling Seven Hotels, Two Office Buildings

SPOKANE, WA-WestCoast Hospitality Corp. is selling seven hotels and two commercial buildings to multiple buyers for gross proceeds of approximately $48 million. The locally headquartered public company says the sale of four of the hotels will close later this quarter while the sales of the other hotels and the commercial buildings are expected to close by the end of the year.The hotel sales expected to close this quarter are the Red Lion ParkCenter Suites in Boise, ID; the Red Lion Inn in Aberdeen, WA; the Red Lion Inn in Kalispell, MT; and, the Red Lion Inn Bend South in Bend, OR. The other hotels it has agreements to sell are the Red Lion Hotel Hillsboro, OR; the Red Lion Inn Klamath Falls, OR; and, the Budget Inn in Spokane, WA. The commercial buildings being sold are the Crescent and Paterson buildings.The company continues to market for sale through a listing agreement with Colliers International the WestCoast Ridpath Hotel in Spokane, WA; the Red Lion Hotel in Idaho Falls, ID; the Red Lion Hotel Yakima Gateway, in Yakima, WA; and, the WestCoast Outlaw Hotel in Kalispell, MT. Proceeds of the sale will offset the ongoing $40-million revitalization of 31 Red Lion hotels throughout the company’s portfolio, which spans 11 western states and British Columbia. Minus the properties for sale, the company has 45 hotels flying the Red Lion flag.The office buildings under contract are not the only non-hotel assets in the company’s portfolio. In March, the company announced an $8-million effort to reposition the substantially vacant 110,000-sf Lincoln Building in Downtown Spokane into Lincoln Plaza, an office and retail center.The property is one of two Downtown office buildings with in-building parking. As part of the redevelopment, Lincoln Plaza’s 200 underground parking stalls will be improved and made available for evening public use to take advantage of growing Downtown entertainment opportunities. Common area and exterior building improvements are expected to be completed by 2006. Construction financing is being provided by Compass Group, a regional union pension funded lender.