Harry G. Spirides, President of Spirides Hotel Finance Company
TAMPA, FLORIDA—Spirides Hotel Finance Company has successfully provided and the borrower has officially closed $7 million in loans to refinance the existing mortgage debt and fund renovations to the Holiday Inn Express and Clarion Pointe hotels in Sylva, North Carolina.
The 67-room Holiday Inn Express Sylva, NC is located at 26 Rufus Robinson Road. Its ownership retained the services of Spirides Hotel Finance Company to provide them with a new conventional mortgage which has a much lower fixed rate of interest than that of their previous mortgage as well as additional funds to perform a comprehensive Holiday Inn Express “Formula Blue” renovation.
Concurrently, the same ownership wanted to refinance the mortgage debt of their 69-room Clarion Pointe Sylva, NC hotel, which is located at 2807 US Highway 74 East, to obtain a much lower fixed rate of interest than that of their previous mortgage as well as advance additional funds to reimburse the brand conversion renovation that they had just completed.
Sylva, Jackson County, North Carolina is located in the mountainous Nantahala National Forest. The economy in Jackson County is driven primarily by eco-tourism. Visitors are drawn to the area for its beautiful scenic mountain terrain, fall leaf color, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Casino, and Western Carolina University. Sylva offers a quaint and walkable downtown with shops, restaurants, and breweries. Jackson County is within a close drive to a number of major metro areas including Charlotte, Atlanta, Knoxville, and other cities.
“I am very pleased that we were able to provide this favorable permanent, long-term financing for our customer, the borrower in this transaction. Both of these hotels have experienced a very strong recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 2021 they experienced revenue gains in the double-digit percentages compared to 2019 pre-pandemic revenues. Popular drive-to leisure destinations such as this area have performed well during the COVID-19 Pandemic since less people have flown or taken international trips,” says Harry G. Spirides, President of Spirides Hotel Finance Company who led the debt placement team representing the borrower in this transaction. “In fact, the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is the most visited of any U.S. national park, has experienced a 57% increase in park visitors over the past ten years. Fourteen million people visited the park in 2021. Now that is an incredible local business demand generator for these two hotels,” adds Spirides.
Spirides Hotel Finance Company arranged for a Southeast U.S. headquartered regional bank to make both of these conventional mortgage loans which feature a 25-year term, 25-year amortization, and a very low, fixed interest rate which will adjust every 5 years.
