Dec. 27, 2012--JANESVILLE -- After a 38-year run in the local hotel and conference center scene, Stan Jones was packing up his office belongings Wednesday.

Jones and his partners have sold the Holiday Inn Express & Janesville Conference Center that they built and opened nearly 20 years ago near the intersection of Interstate 90/39 and Highway 14 in Janesville.

"It's been an outstanding run," Jones said. "This has been a very successful hotel and conference center, and it will continue to be successful."

Janesville Hotel Partners sold the 142-room hotel and conference center last week to Corydon Hotel Holdings of Naperville, Ill. In Janesville, it will operate as Janesville Hospitality.

Jones said he and his partners were approaching the end of a 20-year brand licensure with Holiday Inn.

"We had some decisions to make," said Jones, who came to Janesville in 1975 as the general manager of the former Ramada Inn.

The group weighed another 10-year license with Holiday Inn, as well as the possibility of selling the property at 3100 Wellington Place.

A Chicago-area real estate firm found a buyer, one Jones said he and his partners are confident is qualified.

"Finding the right buyer was important to me," Jones said. "We wanted someone who had Holiday Inn experience. This is a big project in Janesville, as there are a lot of facets to the business."

The Corydon group, Jones said, operates Holiday Inn properties in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio and plans to open three new properties in the Chicago area.

"They are serious players, and that was important to me in the sale of the Janesville property," Jones said.

As part of its license agreement, the new group has committed to several million dollars in property improvements, Jones said.

Staff at the Janesville property will remain the same, as will catering and event bookings, he said.

"Nothing at all has changed or will change," he said.

Jones, however, will not remain in Janesville. His group still owns the Holiday Inn Express in New Berlin, and that's where his new office will be. He'll continue to live in the Whitewater area.

"The staff here will be the same, and I'm entirely confident that we're leaving the operation in very capable hands," Jones said.

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(c)2012 The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, Wis.)

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