Capitol Plaza comes back with vigor

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 1994 by Edelstein, Art

Montpelier City Manager Ryan Cotton was also very pleased the Basharas had made the commitment to reopen the hotel. "It's tremendously important, and the hub. A lot of spokes revolve around it," he said.

Cotton said the lack of the hotel for conferences in the past two years has hurt statewide associations, who found themselves with few suitable meeting places near Montpelier.

'Try to post a meeting for 250 people in central Vermont, it's extremely difficult to do," agreed Malek. "A capital city without a facility to host 250 people is certainly an anomaly."

Montpelier will benefit financially to the tune of $74,000 from the property taxes the hotel generates, even with tax stabilization.

When the hotel was sold, the city received a small windfall of $301,000 in back property taxes and other user fees. The value of the newly refurbished hotel now rises for tax purposes to $2.5 million from $1.6 million. As part of the city's participation in financing of the project, the hotel will provide 50 parking spaces for the public. Bicyclists also benefit because the old tavern motor garage will be removed, and that makes the proposed bike path possible.

Cotton summed up the feelings of many who waited for the hotel to reopen.

"It lifts a huge weight off the downtown shoulders," he said. "It's the one last property suffering from the flood. It's a tremendous relief."

SUMMING UP

After a long decline, which culminated in serious flood damage two years ago, the former Days Inn on State Street in Montpelier re-opened in March as the Capitol Plaza and Hotel. Montpelier businessman Fred Bashara purchased the building from bankruptcy court, renovated it extensively, and plans to run the facility as a conference center, restaurant and hotel.

* The hotel was the last downtown building to be renovated and repaired following a devastating flood in 1992. The building, which occupies a block of State Street and which sits kitty-corner to the Governor's office, had already begun to slide into disrepair before the flood. After the flood, it sat idle for two years with only a few businesses choosing to remain there.

* Critics charge the former owners with being inexperienced in the hospitality business, unwilling to spend enough money on capital improvements, and too eager to make a fast buck or write it off for tax purposes, at the expense of the business. The last owners, a management group representing The Day's Inn, filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

* Bashara, who owns and operates several movie theaters and car washes, first bid on the property, but lost to a higher bidder. Last summer that bidder unexpectedly withdrew from the deal and Bashara closed on the hotel last fall.

Art Edelstein is a freelance writer based in East Calais.