Oxnard May Let Owners Sell Radisson Hotel : Investments: The City Council next week will weigh the proposed $8-million sale of the financially struggling hostelry, which would halt foreclosure proceedings.

Hoping to put one of the worst investments in recent city history behind them, Oxnard leaders on Tuesday will consider letting the owners of the financially struggling Radisson Suite Hotel sell the hostelry to avoid foreclosure.

Westland Co. of Ventura has fallen behind $19 million on a $12-million-plus-interest loan it took out for the hotel.

Manufacturers Bank has begun foreclosure proceedings to seize the hotel, but is willing to cut its losses and let the Westland Co. sell the complex for $8 million, according to city officials.

“This is a pretty significant write-down,” Oxnard City Manager Tom Frutchey said. “A lot of people are taking a bath on this.”

Because Oxnard owns the land the hotel is built on, the City Council must approve the sale.

The would-be owner is Ventura Hospitality Partners, a joint venture between I.N.G. Inc., an international banking firm, and SEDKO Interest Inc., which owns or manages 45 hotels nationwide.

Under the proposed sale, the bank would keep most, if not all, of the $8 million, said attorney Stanley E. Cohen, who represents Westland’s general partners, Glen and Walter Hartman.

“There are other options, but this one seems to make the most sense,” Cohen said. “There is personal liability to the Hartmans, and this is a good compromise between my clients and the bank.”

In addition to the $8-million sale price, Ventura Hospitality Partners would have to pay the city $550,000 and agree to invest $1.1 million in the hotel, which would remain a Radisson franchise, according to a city report.

Located next to the River Ridge Golf Course, the 250-room Radisson Suite Hotel is one of Oxnard’s most popular hostelries, and serves as the Oakland Raiders’ summer training camp.

Oxnard decided to partly underwrite the hotel in 1985 to attract the Raiders and gain favorable publicity, as well as to provide a place for visiting golfers to stay.

The deal turned into a fiasco for the city.

Raider owner Al Davis erected a black barrier around the practice field, preventing local fans from watching the team train.

Oxnard officials expected revenues from the hotel lease to offset a $9-million bond the city took out to finance the golf course’s sprawling parking lot.

But the Westland Co. fell into financial hardship after the hotel’s construction in 1986. It never made any payments on the lease, and the city had to swallow a $985,000 yearly bond payment.

Although the Radisson’s owners never surmounted their construction and other start-up costs, the hotel has been a popular success.

The Radisson had a 70% occupancy rate last year, with rooms renting from $50 to $125 a night, and Oxnard receives more than $300,000 a year from the hotel in bed and sales taxes alone.

Frutchey said the Radisson never lived up to the financial expectations of Oxnard officials, however, mainly because the city’s original prognosis for the hotel was far too rosy. But Frutchey, who like many current city officials was not working for Oxnard when the deal was made, said he would not criticize previous leaders for their decision.

“Would we have done it different? Yes,” Frutchey said. “Can we say that the people who made the deal were fools or criminally negligent? I don’t think so.”

Although details of a new lease agreement between Oxnard and the new owner have not been worked out, city officials say Oxnard probably will never recoup its investment in the Radisson.

But Councilman Bedford Pinkard said Oxnard leaders need to put the bad deal behind them, move forward and make the best of the situation.

“It was a bad deal for the city from the beginning,” Pinkard said. “I think we need to get out from under it. Otherwise, we’ll just get deeper and deeper.”