The new owner of Downtown Evansville's Executive Inn has been tight-lipped about how much he paid for the 470-room hotel last week, but the property's price tag is now public.
A sales disclosure filed with the Vanderburgh County assessor's office put the Executive Inn's price at $11 million, a couple of million dollars less than what former owner John Bays has said he spent over the last several years on the hotel.
Tejany Hospitality of Oak Brook, Ill., purchased the hotel from Bays last Friday. The $11 million purchase price includes $1.65 million in personal property, assessor records indicate. Bays had been working on the deal with Tejany for about a year.
Noor Tejany, president of the company, praised Bays this week for renovating the hotel after it was shuttered in February 2001 when the utilities under then-owner Alvin Granoff of Dallas went unpaid.
According to assessor records, Bays bought the hotel in March 2001 for $1 million. He promised to spend $8 million renovating it in return for incentives from the county.
That figure was eventually eclipsed. In a 2003 letter to the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, Bays said he had spent $12 million on renovations and was spending $100,000 a month to cover the hotel's operating expenses.
In 2005, Bays said his total cost, including renovations, had risen to $13 million. He had already made extensive upgrades to guest rooms and banquet facilities. More recently, Bays said another $6 million to $10 million is needed for further improvements.
Tejany appears to be on board with those plans. Earlier this week he said he planned to spend several millions on the hotel with the goal of tying it to a national chain. That process will likely take 18 to 24 months.
Tejany is one of just a few owners in the Executive Inn's history. In 1995, Granoff's company, Texas Stoneleigh, purchased the hotel for about $4.6 million at an auction, according to assessor records.
The owner before Granoff, Green Construction Co., had been running the hotel under forbearance agreements with its lenders. Green Construction was controlled by the heirs of Robert Green, who acquired a 174-room Ramada Inn located at the Executive Inn's site in 1967.
After Granoff acquired the property, he spent millions on renovations, including a re-vamped lobby, and the hotel came under the Radisson flag for a time. But Granoff's efforts weren't enough, as delinquent utility bills forced the hotel to close.
Last week's sale of the Executive followed the 2005 sale of another Bays property in the Tri-State. Bays purchased the Executive Inn Rivermont in Owensboro, Ky., at a bankruptcy sale for $5.5 million in 1999 and said he spent $14 million on renovations there.