Heathman Hotel Sale May Be Formalized This Week

PORTLAND, OR-The sale of the Heathman Hotel is close to being finalized. Neither Heathman Hotel Group president Bruce Fery nor Rim Corp. CEO Mark Burden returned calls seeking comment Monday, but a source close to the transaction says a deal is less than a week away.

When news of the negotiations broke in late July, Fery told GlobeSt.com that attorneys for both sides were working on the deal, but that financing was still an issue for Rim Corp., which has made unsuccessful advances for the Heathman in the past. All told, there have been four offers on the property in the past 18 months, Fery said.

The Heathman Group, owned by the Stevenson family of Bingen, WA, owns four hotels and five restaurants. The family also runs the STS Lumber Co. in Bingen, WA. Rim Corp., based in Modesto, CA ,owns and operates 17 mid-to-low priced chain hotels in California, and is on the hunt for other Portland properties.

If successful, the sale would end a long period of local ownership for the hotel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also would likely close the Heathman Restaurant that shares the street level with the hotel’s lobby at 1001 SW Broadway. Rim is reportedly talking with the Portland-based McCormick & Schmick’s seafood restaurant chain.

The upscale, 150-room hotel was built in 1927 and sits adjacent to the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, which includes the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Fery wouldn’t reveal the offered price–there is no list price for the hotel because it was never put on the market–but it is expected to sell for well over its appraised value, which is $17.31 million.

Following a $2.5-million renovation in 1998, the hotel and restaurant brought in $11 million in revenue in 1999. Through the first six months of this year, revenue for the hotel is off between 5% and 6%, while restaurant revenue is up by a similar percentage, Fery says.