Despite $1.3 million in liens, Hilton drawing prospective buyers

The troubled Hilton Pittsburgh Hotel appears to be capturing interest from prospective buyers, local officials said Friday.

"We're aware there are some parties interested in the Hilton," said Megan Dardanell, spokeswoman for Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

She said the county executive's office informally has been told of some "local interest."

The exterior of the hotel at Downtown's gateway sports exposed I-beams and steel decking for an expansion stalled by a series of financial problems and run-ins with unpaid contractors.

The hotel's present owner, Shubh Hotels LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., hasn't acknowledged a letter that Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl sent late Monday to seek a meeting. Shubh officials couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

Onorato and Ravenstahl say they want to talk with CEO Atul Bisaria at his "earliest convenience" about the future of the city's biggest hotel.

"There's been no response from Shubh to the letter, and I suspect that if we don't hear from them by early next week, we probably will try contacting them again," Dardanell said.

"Our priority is that the hotel is a success, that construction is completed in time for the G-20 summit," she said.

Leaders from the world's 20 most industrialized nations are expected in town for the summit Sept. 24-25.

Ravenstahl spokeswoman Joanna Doven said yesterday that she wasn't aware of a possible buyer interest in the Hilton, even though her boss admitted he knew of such interest during a television interview Thursday.

Hilton Corp. spokesman John Forest Ales said officials for the hotel chain weren't available to answer questions yesterday about the Downtown hotel.

A sale might be the only way to satisfy seven remaining liens — totaling nearly $1.3 million — related to an expansion and renovation at the Hilton and to resume construction, some local real estate experts said.

"Fundamentally, lodging is down across the country, and lodging financing is very hard to find," said Jeremy Kronman, executive vice president with the Pittsburgh office of real estate firm CB Richard Ellis. "A sale obviously would make a lot of sense."

In the last 18 months, dozens of liens for nonpayment for work at the 50-year-old hotel have been filed. Work has stopped and restarted before, with the current stoppage lasting two months so far.

Although Shubh paid a debt to a plumbing contractor, the owner of the Days Inn motel in Banksville still is pursuing a sheriff's sale of furniture and other property in the hotel to settle a $12,000 lien. The sale still is scheduled for July 27. The Days Inn lien related to a stay by some Shubh officials there last year.

Another disgruntled Hilton creditor has filed legal documents to schedule a sheriff's sale of hotel items as early as July 30.

Fire Fighter Sales and Service Co. of Sharpsburg installed a sprinkler system last year and billed Shubh for $69,363. One payment of $10,347 was made in April.

With roughly $62,350 still owed, including interest, Fire Fighter owner Rick Malady said he has had enough.

"We were paid piecemeal, with a lot of promises made to pay us, then they reneged on paying," Malady said.

Shubh's Bisaria acknowledged in a notarized document that he owes Fire Fighter $62,350.