Sept. 21–ASHLAND — Two businessmen officially bought the Ashland Plaza Hotel and announced Thursday how they plan to revamp it into a 4-star Marriott-brand Delta Hotel — a move city officials hope will energize a struggling downtown.
"You're not going to recognize this," said Jim Nizzo of New York-based WB Hospitality as he gestured toward the Ashland Plaza Hotel lobby.
Nizzo and his partner Andy Spiros announced the purchase alongside city officials and Ashland Community and Economic Development Director Chris Pullem, who spearheaded efforts to entice the developers.
The hotel was sold by Dr. Prakash Patel, an oncologist from Portsmouth.
The business partners — who also own the Bellefonte Center in Greenup — bought the hotel for $3.6 million, Nizzo told The Daily Independent.
The Daily Independent reported the businessmen intended to make the buy in May. The initial closing date for the sale was set for June 30 but pushed back multiple times while the City of Ashland worked to shore up an incentive package for the project.
The city will provide about $4.6 million to the business developers through bonds to help with construction costs. The incentive funding is supposed to be generated by a 20-year Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, program launched in downtown Ashland by the city and the Boyd Fiscal Court.
The TIF program allows the city to capture anticipated increases in city, county and state tax revenue generated inside the downtown TIF district. Tax rates will not be raised as a result of the TIF program according to city officials.
A Lexington-based financial consulting firm hired by the city projects the TIF program will allow the city to capture about $16.5 million in TIF-eligible funds over the 20-year life of the program. But that total is merely a projection. The city will be on the hook for $4.6 million incentive and another major, related project — the construction of a $14 million parking garage next door to the hotel.
The garage would be four stories, 400 spaces and a convention center on its top floor. It would replace the old Ashland Inc. building at 1401 Winchester Avenue, which the city agreed to take ownership of from a Louisa bank this year.
Nizzo and Spiros sought the incentive from the city before moving forward with their more than $16 million investment.
The new Delta Hotel by Marriott is scheduled to open next summer.
The hotel will employ between 115 to 125 people and include a restaurant, two cocktail bars and 150 rooms.
This story is breaking and will be updated with more details after the press conference concludes.
