Ownership change of historic Hotel Elliott completed

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, July 31, 2010

This story first issued Tuesday, July 06, 2010 4:22 PM (pst) via our News Updates email program.

The change of ownership of Astoria’s historic Hotel Elliott was formally completed July 6 with the purchase of the 32-room boutique hotel by Sanders Elliott, LLC., from No. 10 Sixth Street, Ltd.

Chester Trabucco, majority owner of No. 10 Sixth Street, said the hotel changed hands at a valuation of “just under” $4.1 million.

Molly Sanders of Vancouver, Wash., is principal owner of Sanders Elliott, LLC.

Sanders, who previously was an investor in No. 10 Sixth Street, has had controlling interest in the hotel since January 2010, while No. 10 Sixth Street retained ownership of the property until July 6.

Trabucco said the transfer price represented the investment of Molly Sanders and the outstanding debt owed to the Bank of the Pacific.

“We are not unhappy with the negotiations,” he said. “We deem it a fair price.

The early July sale was the culmination of more than year-long negotiations between the two parties, Trabucco said.

“We began negotiations on an exhaustive pre-agreement at the beginning of 2009,” he said. Those negotiations resulted in a written agreement between the two parties this past October.

However, the completion of the assignment transaction was delayed by an environmental issue, namely the removal of a long-unused heating oil tank that served the hotel during its early days.

Trabucco said that once that project was completed and the work received approval of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the assignment of the hotel was able to be finalized.

Trabucco said the sale had to go through a formal foreclosure procedure to clear the property’s title and to close out an unnamed investor in the hotel.

“It is our intent to make everyone whole via the proceedings,” Trabucco said.

Trabucco said guests to the upscale hotel would not see any changes in operations.

North Pacific Management, Inc., of Vancouver, Wash., which has managed the hotel for the past 1-1/2 years will continue day-to-day management, Trabucco said. John Taffin, the hotel’s general manager, also will continue in his position.

Trabucco, a long-time Astoria resident and developer who now resides in Seattle, purchased the turn-of-the-century hotel in early 2000. After extensive remodeling, the facility opened to its first guest in 2003. It was the first of numerous older hotels to undergo major renovations in Astoria.

Even through the lengthy economic recession, Trabucco said the Hotel Elliott and No. 10 Sixth Street have remained profitable. He said No. 10 Sixth Street, a large commercial building on Astoria’s waterfront, is currently enjoying an occupancy rate of between 96 percent and 97 percent.

Trabucco said the sale left him saddened but realistic that it was simply a business decision.

“The Hotel Elliott is my proudest achievement, except for raising my daughter,” he said. “I will always love the place. Yet business is business.”

Trabucco, whose company also owns other properties in Astoria, said he also is at work on the renovation of a large hotel in Aberdeen, Wash.

Sanders was unavailable for comment.