TAMPA, Florida — Spirides Hotel Finance Company has 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, North Carolina, retained the services of Spirides Hotel Finance Company to provide a new conventional mortgage, which has a much lower fixed rate of interest than that of their previous mortgage and additional funds to perform a comprehensive Holiday Inn Express Formula Blue renovation.
The same ownership wanted to refinance the mortgage debt of their 69-room Clarion Pointe Sylva, North Carolina, hotel to obtain a lower fixed rate of interest than that of their previous mortgage, as well as advance additional funds to reimburse the brand conversion renovation 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 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 walkable downtown with shops, restaurants, and breweries. Jackson County is within a close drive to a number of 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.
“In fact, the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is the most visited of any U.S. national park, has experienced a 57 percent increase in park visitors over the past 10 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 regional bank to make both of these conventional mortgage loans, which have a 25-year term, 25-year amortization, and a low fixed interest rate that will adjust every five years.
Based in Tampa, Florida, Spirides Hotel Finance Company provides mortgages and loans to hotel owners across the United States for ground-up construction, acquisition, debt refinancing, and other types of hotel capital projects.
Members of the Spirides family have owned, operated, developed, and advised hotels and restaurants for 100 years, since the 1920s. Harry G. Spirides is a former owner and operator of a 205-room, full-service, beach resort hotel for over 20 years. He is a third-generation hotelier who has over 30 years of experience working in full-service hotels.
