April 17, 2013--It took more than a year and a half, but Reading entrepreneur Alan Shuman finally got what he wanted: The Abraham Lincoln hotel all to himself.

With settlement completed Tuesday, Shuman's entity, Lincoln Hotel LP, paid $5.05 million to add the 104-room historic hotel to his downtown real estate portfolio. That figure includes about $2.25 million in real estate and the rest in furnishings, fixtures, equipment, contents and the assumption of debt.

Shuman said he plans a $10 million renovation, of which $300,000 has been spent.

His plans include restoring the hotel and its rooms, adding a pool two-thirds of the size of an Olympic pool and reopening the Abe Saloon.

Shuman said Wyndham has given him a 10-year option to extend the contract and he has accepted.

In a sense, it was Shuman buying from Shuman, he said. Shuman explained that he had created a variety of entities to buy the entities created by Philadelphia-based Pennrose Properties, the former owner of the hotel.

Shuman, who will turn 44 on Friday, said he took over controlling interest of the entities in December and has since been operating the hotel.

But to settle with the city for the parking garage attached to the hotel, Shuman said he had to create Lincoln Hotel LP, formed at settlement, in order for the city to sign off on it.

Christina Gilfert, acting executive director of the Reading Parking Authority, confirmed that the settlement went through as planned.

"I own 100 percent of everything," Shuman said. "I'm going to fully renovate the building inside and out, back to a historic kind of feel.

"Everything that was done there now was done in '90s. Pennrose did a great job with the mechanicals and there was a nice finish they used there that they used for their low-income buildings, but I'm going to have marble and granite, things to make it look more historic."

Crystal A. Seitz, president of the Greater Reading Visitors and Convention Bureau, said: "I think it's exciting to have someone take on the Abe Lincoln because it was in need of attention.

"And with the Doubletree (the $55 million hotel planned for the 700 block of Penn Street), the two hotels allow us to market to different meeting planners who may have 100 to 200 members of an organization they want near each other in downtown hotels. They will want all of the members in one hotel or within or two blocks distance to each other."

Part of the hotel includes about 50 senior apartments. The debt carrying over from Pennrose is for the senior apartments, Shuman said. About 10 tenants have given notice or moved out since Shuman first announced his intent last year on buying the hotel. He said they received better offers from other senior living apartment companies in the city.

A few more may be evicted for lease violations, such as people living there who are not authorized, or people who smoke or keep animals in their apartments, he said.

Shuman said he knows the lease-abiding residents cannot be evicted, but it's also his goal eventually to renovate that space as well.

"I plan to make that area extended stay hotel rooms, but if that doesn't work, they'll stay residential units," he said.

About 60 people work at the hotel, and Shuman said he plans to add another 60 jobs when the Abe Saloon, pool and other accommodations are finished in 24 months to 48 months.

Contact Business Editor Karen L. Miller: 610-371-5049 or [email protected].

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