April 29, 2009 - VICTORVILLE --With mounting debt and declining revenues, the Quality Inn & Suites Green Tree hotel is in receivership and facing foreclosure, according to court records.

A court-appointed receiver has taken control of the historic hotel at the corner of Green Tree Boulevard and Seventh Street, to see if he can settle its debts without having to sell it off.

"The hotel's continuing operations as normal until that comes to a resolution," Ron Kipling, the hotel's operating manager said Monday.

Kipling said the hotel, which sits along the Green Tree Golf Course, is not in bankruptcy, but that the suit is an "opportunity for the lender and principal to work out terms."

The owners took out a promissory note for $7.3 million with UBS Real Estate Investments of Delaware in 2003, securing the loan with a deed of trust on the property. The hotel has been past due on its $51,000 monthly loan payments since December, court documents state. With penalty and legal fees, Green Tree now owes $7.6 million to pay off the debt.

UBS has filed an action to foreclose on the property, according to court records.

The hotel was once the social and political hub of Victorville, hosting weddings, Chamber of Commerce meetings and campaign fundraisers for local politicians.

"Every function of every size took place at the Green Tree," said Peggy Sartor, a longtime resident and former councilwoman. "There's a phrase 'the gathering place,' and that pretty well describes it in the early days."

The hotel is now a franchised location of Quality Inn owned by Green Tree Capital, a limited partnership based in Los Angeles. A temporary restraining order was also granted against the owners, to prevent them from collecting any revenue or interfering in any way with the receiver's business.

Liza Torkan -- who is named as a defendant in the suit, whose Beverly Hills address appears on the company's business license and whose signature is on the bottom of the now-defaulted loan documents -- did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Attorneys for both parties also declined to comment on the case.

Brooke Edwards may be reached

at 955-5358 or at bedwards@

VVDailyPress.com.

-----

To see more of the Daily Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.vvdailypress.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.