Sep. 9, 2003 - RALEIGH, N.C.--The troubled hospitality industry has another victim: The nearly 30-year-old Clarion Hotel, once known as a Sheraton, near Crabtree Valley Mall.

The hotel, which is owned by Crabtree Properties, closed Tuesday because of a property foreclosure, which began in February. However, unidentified lenders who are foreclosing on the property plan to renovate the hotel so that it can reopen, possibly by next summer.

Bill Smith, owner of Raleigh-based Hospitality Receivership Advisors, which is acting as an intermediary between the owner and lender, said the lenders chose to close the hotel while the renovation work was being done. He would not say when the foreclosure will be complete.

The reservation line for Choice Hotels, which owns the Clarion franchise, said the hotel would be closed for renovations until August.

The company that has managed the hotel, Raleigh-based Davidson and Jones Hotel Corp., did not return calls Monday.

The hotel has suffered through a turbulent few years along with the rest of the tourism industry, as business travel, especially among technology companies in Research Triangle Park, and reservations from the airline staff slipped off after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Last year, the hotel, then a Four Points by Sheraton, was switched to the Clarion brand after the company that sold the Sheraton banner asked for a more expensive renovation than the owner was willing to pay for, including refinishing the public areas with marble and granite and a $275,000 phone systems that put two phone lines with high-speed Internet access in each room.

Davidson and Jones Hotel said at the time it would change the hotel to a Clarion brand and spend $1.25 million on renovations to improve the lobby and replace carpet, drapes and bedspreads in each room. Also, 100 rooms were to be converted into "Clarion business rooms" with larger desks, speaker phones and ergonomic chairs. Those plans were later shelved.

Smith did not have details about the latest renovation plans.

The hotel, which was the first Sheraton in the state when it opened in 1974, got a $2.25 million renovation in 1996.

It was the third Clarion in the Triangle. The former Holiday Inn in downtown Raleigh became a Clarion Hotel two years ago after management decided not to spend $7 million to renovate. Another Clarion opened two years ago on South Miami Boulevard in Durham.

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