The Ramada Inn Albert Lea will be up for auction this month, as the current owners look to hand the torch over to a trained hotel manager or franchise.
“We are looking for a hospitality former operator to purchase or invest in the property,” said Mike Palm, of Palm Properties in Minneapolis. He and his partner in business Phil Johnson are both property developers and are looking to sell the property to someone more experienced in the hotel business.
The auction will be held at 1 p.m. June 28 at the Ramada, 2306 E. Main St.
Palm assured that the hotel is not under any financial stress, and definitely not foreclosure. In fact, he said, the hotel is doing significantly better and more profitable this year than in the last two years.
Johnson has owned the property since the late 1980s and Palm came on in August of 2004 to do renovations and improvements to the property. Since under new ownership, the banquet business has doubled, Palm said. Over $1 million was put into the property as far as upgrades, renovations and remodeling.
“My tagline is ‘breathing new life into old properties’ and that’s what I did there,” Palm said. “And now it is time for an owner/operator who understands the industry to take it to its next level.”
The auction may bring a new ownership, but Dwayne Osterhout, the current general manager, said he and his employees are not worried about their job stability.
“All of our staff and managers are very confident that if it goes at auction — which is not always necessarily the case — that everybody’s still secure here and we will continue to do everything on a daily basis to take care of the customer,” Osterhout said. “It’s business as usual.”
Patrons of the hotel, banquet area and Big Island Grille and Bar should not see any difference and all events booked for the banquet area, including all five weddings in June, will still go on as usual.
Palm said it is very possible that current ownership could continue in some capacity at the Ramada, but the auction is a way to market the hotel for new leadership.
The Ramada was established in 1986.
By Sarah Kirchner for the Albert Lea Tribune