[quote]Hoping to finish what they started[/quote]
The owners of the struggling Roberts Walthall Hotel are turning to the Jackson Redevelopment Authority for $11 million in 20-year development bonds in hopes of kickstarting the historic but largely dormant property.
The agency didn’t take any action on the matter Wednesday, and it’s not clear when it might bring the proposal up for a vote.
Mike Roberts, who owns the 84-year-old downtown Jackson hotel with his brother, Steve, has written JRA asking for bonds.
According to the letter from Roberts to JRA board member Mat Thomas, who chairs JRA’s projects committee, $8.5 million would pay off previously issued Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds used to upgrade the aging hotel, while the remaining $2.5 million would go toward completing those repairs.
In exchange, JRA would have first lien on the property, formerly known as the Edison Walthall, should the deal fail, the letter states.
The hotel has been largely shut down since November 2010 for repairs, although events and long-term room bookings have been taken during that time.
Roberts says in the letter that water pressure problems caused “multiple water leaks” that damaged guest rooms, the restaurant, the lobby bar and meeting space.
Much of the hotel’s 206 rooms have been affected by the damage, and the ground-floor restaurant and lobby bar remain darkened.
With a hotel serving the Jackson Convention Complex still unrealized, the Walthall can again provide needed hotel rooms downtown if JRA can help it reopen, Thomas says.
“The project would address our (needs) for eating and sleeping downtown,” he said.
Roberts could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In his letter to Thomas, he says remaining repairs would take four to six months to finish if funds were available to resume the work.
He added the hotel could be open as early as November if JRA decides to enter the deal.
Thomas says he’s awaiting financial information from the Roberts brothers before going further with the request.
Mike Roberts told The Clarion-Ledger last October that he’d spent at least $5.5 million on repairing the leaks. That’s in addition to more than $9 million the brothers spent in renovations, including flat-screen TVs for guest rooms, since buying the hotel in 2008.
The Roberts brothers have been in talks with the city of Jackson about securing a $15 million loan toward restarting the project.
But Mike Roberts said last year that city officials didn’t seem as concerned with his hotel as they were in helping build a hotel across from the convention complex.
City officials denied the claim, noting they had previously forwarded about $200,000 in economic development grants to aid the restoration.
City spokeswoman Quita Bride said Wednesday that the city had asked developers for a formal proposal regarding the $15 million loan but haven’t gotten one.
The financial empire of Mike and Steve Roberts, who are based in St. Louis, Mo., has been rocked recently.
Roberts Broadcasting Co., which owns WRBJ-TV in Jackson and TV stations in Missouri, South Carolina and Indiana, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, citing more than $4 million in debt.
A judge ruled in December that creditors in that case can sue other Roberts businesses not included in that filing to recover money they say was transferred from the TV stations to other businesses.
Attorneys for the brothers have said they are putting together a plan in which all creditors will be paid over the next four years.
Meanwhile, JRA voted Wednesday to get a new property appraisal on the convention-center hotel land, which remains undeveloped after a preliminary deal between the city and Transcontinental Realty Investors of Dallas fell through.
The agency plans to seek new proposals to build a hotel on the land, although it’s not clear when that will happen. JRA has aimed to have a request for proposals to prospective developers by the end of March.
“When are we going to have a convention-center hotel built … in 2014?” JRA board member John Reeves asked.
Jason Brookins, the agency’s executive director, said he’s waiting for loan repayment information from TCI before moving forward.
Written by Jeff Ayres | Clarion Ledger
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