New Owners Of Former Crowne Plaza Plan Upgrades, Improvements

The new owners of the former Crowne Plaza in downtown Hartford — now the Ramada Plaza — told me this afternoon that they plan significant upgrades and improvements to the 350-room hotel.

An affiliate of South Korea-based  Magilink Group took over ownership of the hotel Jan. 25, after a foreclosure was finalized. The affiliate — 50 Morgan CT LLC — had acquired the mortgage on the hotel shortly before the previous owners, CHOA Vision LLC, filed bankruptcy in 2010.

Magilink is keeping the details of the upgrades — and how much it plans to spend — under wraps for a formal announcement in the near future.

Family-owned Magilink now has a portfolio of 13 properties in the United States, three of them hotels — Ramada Inns in Los Angeles and Amarillo, Texas and now a Ramada Plaza in Hartford. The company’s U.S. operations are based in Los Angeles.

Junny Lee, the son of owner Ny Lee and the family’s representative in Hartford, said the family is relatively new to owning hotels, but it is experienced in the hospitality industry. For 15 years, the family operated a company that provided technological and other services to hundreds of hotels worldwide, Junny Lee said.

When the family sold that business in 2007 and started buying properties, it was a natural to target hotels.

“The most important thing for us, we understood hotels,” Junny Lee said. “We have been looking to expand our portfolio on the East Coast for some time. When the opportunity cam to acquire this asset, we jumped at it. There’s a lot of hidden value to unlock.”

Hotels had a rough slog of it in the recession, but Lee said analysts are starting to see signs of an improvement in the Hartford market.

The Ramada has had a tougher time than most downtown hotels because the foreclosure fostered uncertainty about the hotel future, making it a less attractive booking option.

“That uncertainty is now behind us,” Lee said.

One challenge will be deal with the hotel’s location, tucked near 1-84 on the northern edge of downtown.

“There is this sort of perceived barrier created by the highway,” Lee said. “This is something we are working on. We are working on a solution to tackle the problem.”

Magilink is waiting to take over day-to-day management of the Ramada, which is now being run by a receiver appointed by the courts.

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