Ramada Inn West Reopens; New Manager Is Appointed
Ramada Inn West Reopens; New Manager Is Appointed
By Dan McLeister
(Business-Labor Reporter)
The Ramada lnn West has been reopened by the Ramada Corp. and a new manager has been named. Plans are being made for improvements.
The motel near the Jackson Road interchange of 1-94 had been closed for two weeks. The facility was closed March 3 by an order from a bankruptcy judge in Federal District Court in Detroit because that week’s payroll could not be met by the receiver who was in charge of operations.
Ramada Inn West had been previously operated under a lease agreement by Bonaventure, Inc., from May 1972 until Bonaventure went into voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act.
Ramada Corp. will operate the facility on behalf of the receiver who was appointed by the court in December to oversee operations while the reorganization was being attempted. He will continue in that capacity until final arrangements are made in court.
Plans are already underway for a number of improvements in the property, according to Frederick Osborne, division vice president of hotel operations for Ramada. He said he would not give any other details at this time. “We intend to offer the traveling public and the residents of Ann Arbor the finest hotel accommodations, food and beverage service and entertainment.”
The motel has 123 guest rooms, eight suites, a coffee shop, a cocktail lounge with live entertainment, meeting facilities and a heated swimming pool. Osborne said Ramada Inns is the world’s second largest chain of hotels and motels with a total of 550 properties now open or under construction.
Touching on the relationship with the downtown hotel here at the corner of Huron and Fourth Ave., which presently has a Ramada Inn franchise, Osborne said, “Our plans at the present time call for the downtown hotel to remain a Ramada licensee.”
Although Ramada Corp. representatives haven’t met with members of the Prime Co. yet, a cooperative arrangement such as a joint sales effort could be worked out, Osborne said.
Management of the Downtown Ramada was assumed March 3 by Prime Management Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Equities, Inc., of Clifton, N.J.. NJB Prime Investors, the holder of the mortgage on the downtown hotel, is also affiliated with the other Prime operations.
During most of 1972 Bonaventure operated both facilities.
Prior to that arrangement Ramada Corp. had operated the West facility since it opened in 1960. The downtown hotel opened originally with a Sheraton franchise in February 1968. It was closed in 1970 and opened in May 1972.
The new manager, George Roskowic, was formerly assistant manager of the Ramada Inn at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Roskowic, who joined the company in January, had spent eight and seven years each with two different hotel-motel chains.