Riverfront Richland hotel is sold. What’s happening next?
A Portland company with an appetite for old Shilo Inns has purchased the 150-room hotel on the Richland waterfront.
The new owners will renovate the nearly 50-year-old property and convert it to a Best Western “SureStay Collection,” which caters to leisure travelers.
Benton County property records indicate the hotel sold for $3.6 million in recent weeks to Traum Ventures, an Oregon entity connected to Beaverton-based J & J Hospitality Group LLC, operating as Miracle K Management.
The price is well below the $6.2 million assessed value, a discount that highlights the update potential for the aging Shilo, built in 1970 at 50 Comstock St. at Columbia Point.
The deal covers the Shilo buildings. The hotel was built on 20 acres under a long-term ground lease with the city of Richland that dates to 1961.
The city renewed the lease in 2011 and extended it to 2059, said Zach Ratkai, Richland’s economic development manager.
The city signed off on the ownership change.
Zatkai said it is eager to work with the Portland group. No plans have been submitted, but Ratkai said the city isn’t ruling out the potential to further develop the property in the future in cooperation with the hotel owner.
The Shilo Inn is one of Richland’s most prominent commercial properties and among the first commercial developments at Columbia Point.
The hotel faces George Washington Way and backs up to the Columbia River near Howard Amon Park.
“It’s definitely an important piece of real estate,” Ratkai said.
Neither Jitesh Desai, president and CEO of Miracle K Management, nor the property manager could be reached about the sale and their plans.
On its website, Miracle K Management says the Shilo will convert to SureStay Collection. Officials told Visit Tri-Cities it will retain the Shilo flag during renovations.
The brand includes upscale amenities and full-service restaurants.
Miracle K Management, aka MKM, specializes in renovating and rebranding hotels. It owns or operates 10 hotels in the Pacific Northwest.
Its recent focus has been on Shilo Inns. The Portland “affordable luxury” brand with a Northwest footprint and a troubled financial history that includes placing many of its properties in bankruptcy.
The Richland property was the subject of a 2002 bankruptcy case in Oregon. The case was dismissed a year later, according to court records.
In June, Miracle completed a year-long renovation in Boise that transformed a Shilo Inn at the airport into a Red Lion Inn & Suites.
The top-to-bottom project upgraded the lobby and guest amenities and remodeled rooms and bathrooms as well as the exterior.
It also recently acquired the Shilo Inn at The Dalles on the Oregon side of the Columbia River.