Saturday, November 20, 2010

Friar Tuck Hotel Sells

Going, going, gone … again


The Friar Tuck hotel was sold for $2.5 million in an online auction Thursday. File photo by Claude Haton

A year later, Friar Tuck hotel fetches $2.5 million

By Colin DeVries
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010 2:16 AM EST
CATSKILL — The Friar Tuck hotel was sold for $2.5 million in an online auction Thursday, a year after the failed bankruptcy auction began a long period of limbo for the resort.

Michael Shaughnessy, executive vice president of Ulster Savings Bank, said Thursday afternoon that the bank was pleased with the sale although they did short-sell the hotel property.

Outstanding mortgage debt on the property exceeded $3.2 million when Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings began in September 2009.

A Nov. 19, 2009 bankruptcy auction’s sole bid of $4.5 million was never completed and ultimately resulted in the bank’s repossession of the property six months later.


“Obviously we’re disappointed,” said Shaughnessy during a phone interview Thursday. “But we’re not a real estate operator and our job was to sell the hotel and get the best price we possibly could… We’re happy to have it behind us.”

Shaughnessy could not release the name of the buyer but said it was a real estate investment group that was cleared by the auction company, international real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

The sale did not include the timeshare properties, though the bankruptcy-court-appointed trustee in charge of liquidating the property, Marc Ehrlich of Troy, hoped the buyer of the hotel property would express interest in acquiring the contiguous timeshare property.

The hotel property, as advertised on auction.com, includes 170 acres and 12 buildings including the four-story, 372-room hotel built in 1971.

While the bidders had anonymity through the online auction process, the name of the purchaser may be available after the 30-day closing period.

A representative for the auctioneer did not return calls made Thursday and Friday.

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