Capitol Plaza comes back with vigor

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 1994 by Edelstein, Art

A few days before the planned opening of the newly refurbished Capitol Plaza Hotel on State Street in Montpelier, the former Days Inn was a shambles. Paint, tools, ladders and construction debris littered everywhere. The old Justin Morgan bar room was stripped to its essentials as a dusky light hung above, hiding an electrician fumbling with wires in the gloom.

But on opening day, March 14, a vast transformation had occurred. All was new and clean, as the Vermont Historical Society made history by becoming the first customer of the reopened hotel. For the first time in two years, the venerable building, which had recently fallen on hard times, was hosting a conference. In a larger sense, the VHS conference was the hotel's first step into progress after years of inactivity and mismanagement that had turned it into a downtown eyesore.

The Capitol Plaza opening also signalled the end of two-years of flood clean-up in downtown Montpelier. The 80-room hotel was the last building to be renovated following a devastating flood in 1992.

"Bless Fred Bashara's soul," said a George Malek of the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce. His praise for the local movie theater/car wash owner--who bought the hotel last year and has since lead the effort to reopen the hotel--was echoed by many others in the community.

Bashara already owns the Capitol Movie theater across from his hotel. He also owns Barre's Paramount theater, a Middlebury moviehouse, and two car washes. If Montpelier held a "most popular man in town" contest today, Bashara would walk away with the award.

Bashara's elevation to local "good guy" comes after years of watching the once-popular tourist hotel, and local night spot, slide further and further into decay. The final blow came on March 11, 1992. By mid-morning, the Winooski River, in a furious shiver of activity, shook off its winter's ice and flooded the city's downtown. The hotel's basement and part of the first floor were covered in an ooze of mud and grime. The then-owners quickly closed the hotel to guests and all other activities ceased. Only a few tenants chose to remain in the building.

For two years the building languished, a musty has-been, its owners in bankruptcy and the building for sale. It seemed the death knell bad come for a property that had long endured poor management and, what some have called, greedy owners.

Associated Industries of Vermont, one of the few tenants to remain in the building during the past two years, held on because of the building's proximity to state offices and the State House. But, said AIV's Kerrick Johnson, "It has been like working in the inner city here. You had to work yourself up to walk into the building. It was depressing. The outward and inner appearance was decrepid."

Mark Frano, who owned a flower shop located on the first floor of the old Days Inn, said he could not hold on for better times after the flood. "As a result of the flood, all regular services ended, we had to go to alternative heat sources and the traffic flow went almost to zero."

"The biggest problem from our point of view," said Frano, "was the public's perception of a wounded building. It had the association of the flood long after that feeling left the rest of the town. It wasn't cleaned up. The rest of the town rebounded, but the building remained a dark hulk."

In recent memory, according to Malek, the hotel has changed hands several times. Back in the 1960s and 1970s the Avery family owned it. That family owns the Lake Morey Inn in Fairlee. "They are exemplary hoteliers, but did not plan to own it a long time and did not put money into it," he said.

Ownership changed with the sale of the building to local dentist Irving Anders and his partners. Those owners, said Malek, did not give the property the necessary financial attention it needed.

Eventually, the Northeast Hotel Group bought the hotel and renamed it the Days Inn. Malek said that owner did not spend the necessary money the building needed to shake its increasingly poor image.

"I saw plans that required 1 million plus investment and they put thousands in instead," said Malek. "They barely got the carpeting, as opposed to remodeling and renovation." Later the hotel went into various receiverships after Northeast declared bankruptcy.

"There were a lot people without experience looking for quick bucks," said Don Rowan at the Central Vermont Economic Development Agency. "It goes back to Anders and then the (Days Inn) management group. They were structuring it for tax credits and depreciation and other tax reasons rather than operating it as a quality resort. It was a tax cow."

The hotel's fate, agreed Malek, can be tied to poor management." It fumbled along for 15 years with minimal investment in the physical plant and to a lesser extent in marketing."

Along came Bashara and his family, but they did not get the hotel their first try out. "We bid on it in bankruptcy court in December 1992, but our bid of $1.3 million lost to Jeff Jacobs who bid $94,000 more," said Bashara.