<p class="p1">Astoria Riverwalk Inn owner Brad Smithart said he has no plans to leave the hotel, up for sale for $1.2 million online. He has been refurbishing rooms, adding new furniture, flatscreen televisions and other amenities, and said he’s trying to hasten the building’s renovation with the help of extra investors.</p>

Port of Astoria Commissioner Jack Bland announced April 1 that Brad Smithart was looking to sell the Astoria Riverwalk Inn for $1.2 million.

That was news to Smithart, who said he has no intentions of leaving and listed the property to find up to $1.2 million in additional investment to help speed up renovation of the buildings, built in the mid-1960s.

Each project has a price, said Smithart, adding that hes invested more than $400,000 in the hotel, including $85,000 to fix railings and open up balconies overlooking the West End Mooring Basin.

Smitharts also looking into starting a restaurant and has voiced interest in relaunching the derelict former restaurant between his hotel and the Chinook Building. The space once housed the Seafare Restaurant, made famous by a dinner scene between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Penelope Ann Miller in Kindergarten Cop.

The commercial real estate website lists the Riverwalk Inn, all 120 rooms and 37,000 square feet of it at 400 Industry St., for sale, with a note farther d own the listing that the seller is willing to consider contract terms or partnership.

Smithart maintains that the hotel is doing well, with 82 rooms available to rent, building up to 110 during the summer. He said his operation has been under attack by Bland and in editorials from The Daily Astorian.

Smithart signed a lease in March 2012, a day before former Port Director Jack Crider resigned. He and his former partner Seth Davis were chosen ahead of a regional hotel management company Williams/Dame & Associates, which wanted to tear down the former Red Lion at the West End Mooring Basin and build new. The Riverwalk Inn owners leased the building through September 2017 and later gained a five-year extension option.

Davis left the partnership and returned to Eugene. The Port Commission in November granted Smithart a break of $30,000 a year in rent as long as it all goes back into the building. The commission divided 3-2 on the decision, with Bland and Commissioner Ric Gerttula voting no and Stephen Fulton, James Campbell and Bill Hunsinger voting yes.

Smithart pays the Port $10,000 a month in rent, along with 10 percent of gross revenues. The lease amendment the commission approved shaves $5,000 off his rent during six winter months, starting with November, but required receipts showing that hes put all the savings into the hotel.

We would love more banquet space over here, said Smithart, adding that the hotel lost $70,000 to $80,000 with the closure of the Red Building to public gatherings, including a single wedding group renting 55 rooms for three nights at an estimated value of $18,150.