Plaza Hotel closes abruptly, city given proposal to purchase hotel connected to Convention Center

PINE BLUFF (KATV) – Downtown Pine Bluff’s largest hotel will close for the indefinite future on Tuesday. Groups with reservations made at the Plaza Hotel were told to rebook elsewhere over the weekend – a little more than a dozen “longterm” residents were evicted on Monday.

“I didn’t get the phone call until Saturday that informed me that they had to cancel all our reservations,” said Keith Patterson, vice-president of the Arkansas Chapter of ‘Bloc Burnaz’.

Patterson was expecting hundreds of out of town guests for his motorcycle club’s annual gathering in Pine Bluff – all expected to stay at the Plaza Hotel. Patterson said they’ve been able to place guests at three-area hotels instead.

“This hotel should have been doing a whole lot better than what it was doing,” said Patterson, commenting on “riff-raff” that has been an issue at the hotel.

“I don’t know where the mistakes or the failures came in at, but this is really not a good look for the city of Pine Bluff.”

Patterson commented on the link between the hotel and the city’s convention center. The physical connection between the two properties appeared to be closed on Monday.

Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said she had spoken with the hotel’s manager last Thursday, the manager bringing several concerns to Hollingsworth about the property and added that the hotel’s owner, Bruce Rahmani, was interested in selling or leasing the property to the city.

“The only thing that I could offer back or reply to is that you would have to put this proposal in writing and let us see what type of price that you’re asking and let us get some more information,” said Hollingsworth, adding that the hotel closing was not part of that discussion.

Hollingsworth finally received a proposal in writing from Rahmani, late Monday morning. The proposal offers to either sell the hotel to the city at a cost of $3,000,000 or to lease the property to the city for $20,000 per month – both with no money down – but would require nearly $1,000,000 in renovations and upgrades to bring the hotel up to “franchise standards”.

According to Hollingsworth, who has requested further financial statements concerning the property, said Rahmani mentioned the hotel had been losing roughly $350,000 per year and he’s allegedly funneled nearly $2,000,000 into new furniture, air conditioning for bedrooms and new carpeting.

“It’s not the best scenario, but I’m just thankful that he’s giving us the opportunity to look at it and see if there’s anything that we can do,” said Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth doesn’t believe $3,000,000 is Rahmani’s rock-bottom price, and thinks it will have to come down significantly before the city actually takes a pass at purchasing the 200-bedroom hotel – but she doesn’t necessarily view the hotel’s closure as a bad thing.

“To me – this is an opportunity to make some significant changes,” said Hollingsworth.

The decision to purchase the hotel, Hollingsworth said, really belongs with the Convention Center Commission. She said the concept of having a management team, in coordination with the city, come in and help acquire a ‘name-brand’ hotel to take over – it could help promote the Convention Center.

On a conference call Monday, between Hollingsworth and several city council members, aldermen had requested the owner fly down to Pine Bluff to discuss the future of the hotel – however the hotel appears to be closed for the indeterminate future.

Longterm residents were given 72-hour notice on Saturday, however many ‘residents’ claimed they were only given a 24-hour notice. Hollingsworth said the Salvation Army has offered temporary housing for those displaced by eviction on Monday.

By Matt Mershon, Reporter
www.katv.com