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Holiday Inn Express owners say 'sale' of hotel a 'mistake' [The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.](Augusta Chronicle (GA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sept. 26--An online ad listing the newly-opened Holiday Inn Express on Broad Street for sale at $12.5 million was a "mistake" and owners don't expect to sell for that amount any time soon. Hotelier T.R. Reddy said the listing likely appeared on commercial real state sites such as Loopnet.com and Cityfeet.com after a few conversations he had with buyers or agents interested in his property. "It's not going to sell for that amount," Reddy said. "This is very soon." Reddy and several other Augusta businessmen purchased the former Regency Inn at 444 Broad Street in 2009 for $570,900, according to property records, then invested nearly $6 million in renovations. A 2013 Richmond County assessment of its value was $3.3 million, when construction wasn't complete. Augusta commissioners bolstered the project by allowing it to benefit from the city's fourth Tax Allocation District, which diverts new property tax revenue resulting from development back into the district. The resulting 117-room Holiday Inn Express is doing "as good as it could be" right now, but "it takes about a couple of years or so to stabilize," Reddy said. The TAD agreement between Reddy and the city isn't finalized, but should go before the commission in the next month or so, according to Jim Plunkett, outside counsel on most city development deals. Under the proposed agreement, any new revenue up to approximately 10 percent of development costs, expected to be around $600,000, will be returned to Reddy for costs such as extensive environmental remediation needed at the site, Plunkett said. The payment depends on the total value of the 294-parcel TAD going up. Chief Appraiser Alveno Ross said he expected the TAD digest to have gone up at least as much as Reddy's improvements, but was traveling and unable to verify how much the TAD increased in value. By late Thursday, at least two of the online sales listings had been removed. ___ (c)2014 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) Visit The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) at chronicle.augusta.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |