Kalispell hotels to be sold
Proceeds will be used to renovate Kalispell Center Hotel
The WestCoast Hospitality Corp. announced Monday it will be selling the Kalispell's Outlaw Hotel and Red Lion Inn in order to help pay for improvements to the Kalispell Center Hotel.
The moves are part of a $40 million project aimed at revitalizing the Red Lion hotel brand across the Western U.S. and British Columbia.
The Kalispell Center Hotel, which adjoins the Kalispell Center Mall, will switch from a WestCoast hotel to a Red Lion hotel as part of the change. The rooms will be completely renovated, with new furniture, fixtures and bathrooms, said Thomas Maier, vice president of hotel operations, and the public areas will also see improvements.
Thirty other company hotels are slated for similar improvements over the next 18 months, and nine other hotels have been put on the market. This is the company's largest investment in its hotel properties to date, Maier said.
The WestCoast Hospitality Corp. owns and manages the WestCoast and Red Lion hotel brands. It acquired Red Lion in December 2001 and decided a year later to emphasize the brand in its hotels.
Maier said no dollar amount for the Kalispell renovations has been set. He also pointed to recent improvements in landscaping and the parking lot at the mall.
He said the new project should "enhance" the Kalispell Center Mall, since the hotel is essentially a major anchor tenant. With large retail developments taking shape on Kalispell's north side, there's been speculation that the downtown mall's days are numbered - but not in Maier's view.
"We continue to have good success with our retail here," he said. "It's been 20 years, and we're still over 95 percent occupancy."
He also said there was "nothing new at this time to announce" on a $6.6 million expansion of the mall that was proposed in 1997 and has languished ever since. There is, however, "more to come," he said.
In addition to its hotel holdings, the Spokane-based WestCoast corporation has an entertainment division, which includes TicketsWest.com Inc., and a real estate arm that deals with commercial and multi-unit residential properties.
Company revenue from hotel stays has improved recently, according the WestCoast's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hotel revenue in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, was up $1.8 million compared to the same quarter last year. Average occupancy was 71.3 percent in that quarter compared to 67.7 percent a year ago. The company's hotels also reported occupancy gains in all three quarters of this year, reflecting a national trend.
The company also switched 22 other WestCoast hotels to the Red Lion brand in early 2003.