Phoenix Inn Hotel sells for $1.94 million

By Robin K. Cooper –  Reporter, Albany Business Review

Feb 5, 2023

A father-and-daughter investment team from Chelsea, Massachusetts, have purchased the Phoenix Inn Hotel in North Creek for $1.94 million, marking the second ownership change for the Adirondacks resort in three years.

Buhai Ren and his daughter, Zihan “Hannah” Ren, acquired the 31-room hotel from Diana Espalza. The transaction closed Feb. 1. Broker Mitch Muroff of Muroff Hospitality Group represented the seller and secured the buyer.

The acquisition was financed with a mortgage through Celtic Bank Corp. of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The 2.33-acre resort, located 3 miles north of Gore Mountain Ski Resort, features close to 7,500 square feet of meeting, restaurant and event space including a ballroom for up to 300 guests.

“We had three or four serious inquiries in a relatively short amount of time,” Muroff said. “A few offers came in after the property already was under contract.”

Muroff listed the Phoenix Inn for sale June 15 and the Ren family signed a letter of intent to buy the property three months later.

Formerly known as the Copperfield Inn Resort, the boutique hotel underwent more than $1 million in renovations after Espalza bought the property in December 2019 from Michael Ellis and Copperfield Resorts LLC.

Espalza grew up in Colombia and spent 15 years operating a restaurant, bar and catering business while living in Queens before purchasing the North Creek resort. She took over operations in December 2019, three months before the Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses across New York into temporary shutdown.

“There is tremendous room for growth with the proper sales force and food and beverage professionals,” Muroff said.

The hotel’s proximity to downhill and cross country skiing help make North Creek a year-round destination, yet the area lacks large hotels, Muroff said.

“There really aren’t enough hotel rooms in the market,” he said.

The buyers, who were not immediately available for comment, live north of Boston and own other real estate investments. They plan to operate the Phoenix Inn using a model similar to the one Espalza developed, focusing on wedding and corporate events to supplement leisure travel business.

In addition to saunas and a fitness center, the property also includes a restaurant, a tavern and a swimming pool.

It is the latest evidence that interest in hotel investments throughout the Adirondacks remains strong despite a string of eight federal interest rate hikes over the past year.

“We are not seeing signs of a slow down,” said real estate attorney Jon Lapper, a principal with Bartlett Pontiff Stewart & Rhodes PC in Glens Falls. Lapper represented the Rens in the Phoenix Inn acquisition.

One potential market shift Muroff is seeing is that more developers recognize is that it makes more sense financially to buy existing hotels and renovate them than it does to build from scratch.

“Banks are asking for more and more equity and more guarantees they may not have been asking for a few years ago,” Muroff said.

Lake Terrace Resort On Lake George Has New Owners After Site Sells For $7.4 Million

By Christine Graf

Lakefront Terrace Resort was the latest hotel to change hands in what was a busy year for the sale of Lake George vacation resorts. 

Located less than one mile from Lake George village, the 2998 Lake Shore Drive property features 73 rooms and a 150-foot private beach.

Former Texas prosecutor Ken McGurk sold the resort to Tahoe LG LLC for $7.4 million in a deal that closed in mid-December. 

The LLC is controlled by McGurk’s cousins, Michael, Chris, and Patrick Menter. The brothers own several other Lake George hotels and motels. Their parents, Dave and Theresa Menter, have operated numerous vacation resorts in the area for more than three decades.

McGurk purchased the former Tahoe Resort for $3.4 million in 2018. During his approximately five years of ownership, he invested more than $2 million in renovations to the property. 

According to real estate broker Mitch Muroff, owner of Muroff Hospitality Group, Lakefront Terrace Resort generated a great deal of interest almost immediately after it was listed for sale at the beginning of September. He credits the recent renovations for adding significantly to its appeal.

“Ken McGurk completely renovated the property. He did all of the guest room interiors, patios, the beach, and the indoor and outdoor furniture. He also made improvements to the mechanical systems, driveways—everything.”

Muroff said that business at the resort increased under McGurk’s ownership. 

“Its numbers were very strong. They were much improved from the time when he purchased the property because of the improvements that he made.”

According to Muroff, buyers from all over the country have shown interest in acquiring property in Lake George. His boutique hospitality brokerage firm represents independent and franchised hoteliers in New York and New England.

“Even though it (Lakefront Terrace Resort) was sold to someone locally, we had offers from groups all over the country for this property.”

Despite the rise in interest rates, Muroff continues to have buyers from all over the country who are interested in purchasing property in the area. He noted that the increase in interest rates has led to an increase in the amount of seller financing that is being offered.

Muroff Hospitality has several other local resort properties for sale including Roaring Brook Ranch in Lake George and Hideaway Waterfront Cottage in Lake Luzerne. 

For more information, visit www.muroffhospitality.com.

Muroff Hospitality Negotiates Sale of 73-Room Hotel in Lake George, New York

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Taylor Williams in Acquisitions, Hospitality, New York, Northeast

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. — Boutique brokerage firm Muroff Hospitality Group has negotiated the sale of The Lakefront Terrace Resort, a 73-room waterfront resort near Lake George in Upstate New York. The property, which was originally built in 1963 and recently renovated, offers a pool, private beach and a cabana bar and grill. Mitch Muroff of Muroff Hospitality represented the seller, a limited liability company, in transaction. The buyer was also an undisclosed limited liability company that purchased the asset for $7.4 million.

Former Texas prosecutor sells Lake George resort for $7.4 million

By Robin K. Cooper –  Reporter, Albany Business Review

Dec 16, 2022

Former Texas prosecutor Ken McGurk has sold Lakefront Terrace Resort on Lake George to his cousins for $7.4 million following a multiyear $2 million renovation.

McGurk, who spent several years prosecuting white collar crimes as a special assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Dallas, had purchased the 73-room resort for $3.4 million in 2018 while he and his wife were still living in Texas. The business operated under the name Tahoe Resort at the time.

After moving to Lake George and running Lakefront Terrace for four years, and investing $2 million to paint, upgrade patios and replace beds, linens and floors throughout the 1.76-acre resort, McGurk listed the property for sale in September with Mitch Muroff, broker and owner of Muroff Hospitality Group of Newton, Massachusetts.

Located a half-mile from Lake George village at 2998 Lake Shore Drive, the resort with a 150-foot private beach was purchased by a limited liability company called Tahoe LG that is controlled by McGurk’s cousins — Michael Menter, Chris Menter and Patrick Menter. The transaction closed Dec. 14, according to a deed filed with the Warren County clerk’s office.

The transaction was financed through a mortgage with Glens Falls National Bank. McGurk also provided seller financing, according to documents filed with the county. Muroff represented McGurk and real estate attorney Jon Lapper, a principal with Bartlett Pontiff Stewart & Rhodes PC of Glens Falls, oversaw the closing for the buyers and the seller.

The Menters were not immediately available for comment. The three brothers grew up in the hospitality business. Their parents, Dave and Theresa Menter, have owned and operated multiple hotels and motels throughout the Adirondack Mountains resort community for 35 years, including Scotty’s Lakeside Resort in Lake George and Country Inn & Suites Hotel next door to the Six Flags Great Escape amusement park in Queensbury.

Their sons started becoming more heavily involved in the family’s hospitality business about five years ago and began purchasing and operating motels around Lake George, including The Juliana, a 24-room boutique motel in Bolton and Nordick’s Inn on Lake Shore Drive in Lake George. Their daughter, licensed massage therapist Allison Menter, operates the Saratoga Farmstead bed and breakfast and North Eastern Massage in Greenfield Center, just west of Saratoga Springs.

Lakefront Terrace attracted multiple offers over the past three months, including an offer that would have matched the asking price of $7,925,000, before it was sold to members of McGurk’s family.

“Business has increased dramatically over the past few years and put up some very strong numbers,” said Muroff, the only broker involved in the transaction. “And the commercial real estate market remains very strong. I have buyers from all over the country who are looking for the right opportunity.”

Rising interest rates are having an impact on the market, Muroff said, but they are not stopping transactions from moving forward.

One trend he is beginning to see is that more sellers are starting to provide financing to supplement traditional bank mortgages for at least a portion of some transactions.

Ruff Picketty purchases retail property in Fire Island

By Julian Nazar –  Staff Reporter, New York Business Journal

Nov 9, 2022

Ruff Picketty LLC has just purchased the retail property 41-45 Picketty Ruff Walk in Fire Island for $1.2 million.

This is the first time in 60 years that this property has changed ownership.

The property, which is located at the entrance to Fire Island Pines, features several boutiques, a restaurant called the Canteen, a large outdoor swimming pool, cabana, and bar.

Becksmad Associates sold this retail property to Ruff Picketty. Muroff Hospitality Group’s Mitch Muroff represented the seller, Becksmad Associates, in the deal and secured Ruff Picketty LLC as the buyer. The transaction closed last Friday.

Muroff also recently served as the exclusive broker for the Ice Palace Resort deal in the neighboring Cherry Grove, as previously reported. 

He considers 41-45 Picketty Ruff to be a strategic piece of retail.

“There is very little retail in all of The Pines,” Muroff said. “The only retail is located in a small strip. It’s strategic because as soon as you arrive in The Pines or Fire Island by ferry, everyone who arrives will arrive in a harbor essentially in front of this location.”

Fire Island is a vehicle-free island and is only accessible by ferry from Bay Shore, Sayville or Patchogue, all of which are on the south shore of Long Island.

Fire Island Pines, known for its beaches and LGBTQ community, is one of Fire Island’s 18 neighborhoods.

Roaring Brook Ranch Resort hits market for $7.5 million

By Robin K. Cooper –  Reporter, Albany Business Review

Oct 27, 2022

A real estate investor from India has put his 135-room Roaring Brook Ranch Resort off Route 9N in Lake George on the market following a three-year, $5 million renovation.

Ajay Dhar of New Delhi, who purchased the hotel and conference center with his sister in 2019, has listed the 35-acre resort for $7.5 million.

The property hit the market this week through broker Mitch Muroff and Muroff Hospitality Group.

Besides indoor and outdoor swimming pools and horseback riding trails, Roaring Brook has a restaurant, a café and more than 17,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, large enough to accommodate 700 guests.

“This is an opportunity for someone with food and beverage and conference experience to come in and grow,” Muroff said. “There aren’t many hotels in the Adirondacks who can accommodate groups of that size.”

The owners purchased the resort in May 2019 for $2.75 million after the property sat vacant for years. They hired Access Hotels & Resorts of Florida to manage the property and oversee renovations to the restaurant, banquet areas and 100 of the 135 rooms. The owner started to add a spa in 2020 but delayed those plans after the Covid-19 pandemic hit and it became difficult to find staff.

Executives from Access Hotels talked two years ago about their aspirations of hosting more group business and 30 to 50 weddings a year. The pandemic also stalled those efforts.

Now, wedding and corporate business is slowly starting to come back, Muroff said.

Located at 2206 Route 9N, Roaring Brook was founded shortly after World War II by Joseph Garry Sr. His nephew, George Greene Jr., spent more than 50 years running and expanding the resort until his death in February 2018.

The resort currently includes about 280 acres. The owner wants to sell a 35-acre portion that includes the banquet space, restaurants and 135 rooms. The remaining 245 acres will remain controlled by Ajay Dhar, who owns the real estate under the name Le Millenia Supermart RBR LLC.

“Room occupancy currently does lag the rest of the market, but that is because there has been no marketing effort and people are not aware that the property has been renovated to the tune of $5 million,” Muroff said.

The resort is located about 2.5 miles from the center of the village of Lake George, the focal point of the Adirondack Mountains summer tourist community.

Deal of the Week: Fire Island’s ‘Ice Palace’ Ignites $7.2M Sale

The Exclusive New York Isle’s Legendary Hotel and Nightclub is Rare Real Estate

Fire Island doesn’t see a lot of deals go down. The small, development-resilient summer paradise accessible only by boat from New York’s Long Island barely even sees properties go up for sale. But last year, the island’s largest resort — rooting back to 1882 and serving as an LGBTQ staple for arguably almost as long — suddenly came scorching onto the market. Myriad real estate players checked in. But after more than a year, only the right buyer checked out.

“People just want to be there,” Mitch Muroff, owner of Muroff Hospitality Group brokerage, says of the Ice Palace Resort — an iconic business made up of a two-story, 63-room waterfront hotel and adjacent single-story nightclub that he helped sell to Bowline Hospitality Group for $7.2 million last week.

Sparking the Fire

When the property hit the market during the height of the pandemic in 2020, its owner of about 15 years, a local veterinarian, initially had trouble finding a buyer. But then Muroff, a specialist in boutique hospitality, contacted the owner, took over the listing from a generalist broker, and “immediately attracted a great deal of interest.”

Muroff wasn’t surprised by this. “It’s the largest hotel on Fire Island; it has the largest swimming pool and the largest nightclub,” he told LoopNet. “It may be the most important structure on Fire Island.”

“With an extremely high barrier to entry on Fire Island, the sale of the Ice Palace Resort represents a unique opportunity to own a historic piece of what’s really another world.”

Mitch Muroff, Muroff Hospitality

The small island is recognized nationally as one of the first and most renown meccas for LGBTQ culture. Interest in Fire Island has likely piqued even more this summer due to the popularity of the eponymic romantic comedy “Fire Island,” a film loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and released on Hulu last month. The Ice Palace is featured prominently in the film, which is set in the Cherry Grove village of the island.

The approximately 9-square-mile, mostly residential sandspit is just a few miles off the coast, but it’s known for its far-flung feel; a car-free vacation destination with pristine beaches and tranquil towns.

It’s also decidedly exclusive. Development of new commercial properties on the magnitude of this 30,000-square feet hotel is unthinkable on Fire Island, Muroff noted. “With an extremely high barrier to entry, this sale represents a unique opportunity to own a historic piece of what’s really another world.”

Stoking the Flame

But finding the right buyer wasn’t so simple. “Many interested parties from New York City and all over the country just saw the property as a hotel in Long Island,” Muroff said. “Some knew a great deal about the site and the history of this resort,” he added. “But someone who was just in the rooms business wouldn’t necessarily be a good fit.”

Instead, he explained, “the right buyer needed to be comfortable with the fact that close to half of the property’s revenue was coming from the nightclub.” The hotel’s separate, adjacent Ice Palace nightclub has been a hotspot for queer culture since it opened in the 1950s and has hosted icons such as Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli and Lady Gaga ever since.

As for the hotel, the site has been home to several variations since the late 19^th century, all on the same footprint. The newest iteration representing that legacy, the two-story Grove Hotel, was rebuilt in 2018 from the ground up after the 1958-built Cherry Grove Hotel was destroyed in 2015 by — no joke — a fire on the island. Going from an exterior corridor, motel-like build to double-loaded interior corridors, the new construction is a big improvement to the site, Muroff said.

Still, much can be done to improve the CoStar-classified 2-star hotel, likely through upgrades, renovations and rate management, he said. The buyer is a good fit for such a thing, he added. Bowline is a hospitality-based private equity firm headquartered in Key West, Florida, where it owns and operates two other boutique hotels along with a resort in St. Thomas.

Bowline will operate the Ice Palace Resort “pretty much the way it’s run today,” Muroff pointed out. “Since it’s a seasonal resort, they plan to do renovations and design updates later this year, during the off-season.”

The Ice Palace Resort sale, which landed right on the asking price of $7.2 million, includes not just the 61,855-square foot lot and its two buildings, but the entire value of the business.

Given the likelihood of achieving higher average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy levels through professional, experienced management, Muroff noted in prepared sales materials, the transaction represents a 10% pro forma capitalization rate.

While a traditional cap rate measures the current net operating income figure against the acquisition cost, a pro forma cap rate uses an assumed future NOI that could be achieved by a new buyer. As for Bowline, Muroff believes they’ll do a “great job of taking the Ice Palace Resort to the next level.”

Joe Beeton Editor – Joe has been reporting business news for nearly a decade, having traveled extensively to cover international oil markets before pursuing his interests in architecture and planning. Joe holds a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate and Urban Development at the Virginia Commonwealth University, where he’s finishing a Masters of Science in Business.

Muroff of Muroff Hospitality Group handles $1.125 million hotel sale

July 12, 2022

Ilion, NY Muroff Hospitality Group handled the sale of the Motel 6, located at 345 E Main St. The hotel traded for $1.125 million.

The seller was Shreyarsh Corporation and the buyer was Midas Touch Gevaldig LLC.

Mitch Muroff of Muroff Hospitality Group represented the seller and secured the buyer in this exclusive listing. The business transaction closed on Friday, June 9, 2022.