MetroPlex Sold for $850,000 to Anderson’s New Entity
GIRARD, Ohio — Kutlick Realty LLC, Boardman, announced late Tuesday that it has sold the former MetroPlex hotel at 1620 Motor Inn Drive to BLI of Metroplex Ltd., a limited partnership formed by Ronald R. Anderson in December. The purchase price was announced at $850,000.
Anderson is the owner of Universal Development, 1607 Motor Inn Drive, a developer of residential real estate in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa., which include apartments and condominium complexes that the company manages. He did not respond to an email request for comment about his plans.
The MetroPlex opened in 1987 under the Holiday Inn banner and quickly became the go-to venue for meetings and small conventions. The vacant 300,000-square-foot property, which ceased operating March 4, 2014, following two minor fires, sits on 11 acres near an entrance ramp to Interstate 80. It contains 153 rooms, a restaurant facility and meeting areas.
“The location – it’s all about the interstate, the volume of traffic,” says Bill Kutlick, owner/broker of Kutlick Realty. “A lot of local people looked at it as Belmont Avenue and lost the vision of what the interstate brings.”
Six months ago, Kutlick Realty listed the land and building for sale at $990,000. It failed to sell at an auction conducted last May 7 by Hanna Chartwell Commercial Real Estate, Cleveland, that set a reserve price of $995,000. Another national real estate broker previously listed the hotel for sale but found no buyers.
The hotel was last operated by Aswin Ganapathy Hospitality Associates LLC, which purchased the property in November 2009 for $900,000. Last month Aswin filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Girard and Liberty Township officials, seeking $12.5 million in damages for “a series of actions which were designed to prevent Aswin from making a profit”as operataor of the hotel. In its lawsuit, Aswin claimed it spent $1.825 million to improve the property.
The MetroPlex went into receivership in January 2008 when Youngstown Hotel Properties LP defaulted on a $7 million mortgage. In September 2008, businessman Ray Travaglini agreed to buy the property for $2.7 million. Travaglini died unexpectedly afterward and the sale was never completed.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
