July 21–NEW CASTLE — Ocean Properties Hotels Resorts and Affiliates paid $65.5 million to buy out a partner in the ownership of the prestigious Wentworth by the Sea hotel and now owns 100 percent of the oceanfront resort.
Richard Ade, chief financial officer and executive vice president for Ocean Properties, said the company took on a partner in 2007, Rockwood Capital LLC in New York City, and last Thursday paid Rockwood so it could own "100 percent of Wentworth by the Sea."
"We find the Wentworth to be one of our premier properties," Ade said Thursday. "Our home is Portsmouth and we want it to be an Ocean Properties hotel for hopefully a long time to come."
Ocean Properties has been managing the hotel "for ourselves and Rockwood since they acquired the interest in 2007," Ade said.
Operations at the historic New Castle hotel and resort won't change because of the buyout, Ade said, but he said renovations that have been ongoing will continue.
"All of the (161) rooms have been entirely renovated in the past year," Ade said.
The hotel's two restaurants were also renovated and Ocean Properties continues to "make improvements to the entire property," he said.
"By the end of 2016 the entire hotel will have been renovated, every room, the meeting facilities, everything," Ade said.
Michael O'Shaughnessy, general manager for Wentworth by the Sea, described the work as a "multi-million-dollar renovation."
"Over the course of the last few years, we've renovated almost everything," he said.
Work included a "soft renovation" of the lobby and adding a "brand new deck and bar and fire pit area," for the outdoor pool, he said.
Ocean Properties rebuilt the historic Wentworth hotel, which was first built in the 1870s, reopening the long-shuttered property in 2003.
The company was the sole owner of the hotel until 2007 when it took on the partner, Ade said.
In a related move, Rockwood Capital LLC sold the Marriott Residence Inn at 1 International Drive at Pease International Tradeport for $11 million to Happy Dreams LLC, of Auburn, Maine.
Rockwood Capital LLC sold its share of the ownership of Wentworth by the Sea to Ocean Properties and the Residence Inn as part of a "package deal," according to Ade and George Schott, owner of Happy Dreams LLC.
"Ocean wanted to own Wentworth by the Sea and I wanted to own the Residence Inn," Schott said.
Schott co-owns two Residence Inns by Marriott with Ocean Properties in Bath and Auburn, he said.
Asked why he bought the Pease property, Schott said, "I felt it was a good move and a good location."
Ade said Schott is a "person that we've partnered with and also managed his wholly owned hotels."
Schott doesn't anticipate making any major changes to the Pease hotel. "The lobby was just redone less than a month ago," Schott said.
Ocean Properties was started by Tom Walsh, who began his career working with his father going "door to door" selling Maine Motel supplies, according to the company's website.
Walsh bought the Plaza Hotel in Brewer, Maine, and by the early 1970s Walsh "had purchased five hotels in Florida" and formed Ocean Properties, according to its website. The company now also owns "shopping centers, apartment complexes … office buildings and marina," its website states.
