Casper’s Parkway Plaza Hotel to be Auctioned
Just a few days ago, K2 Radio News reported that the announced change in ownership of the city's troubled Parkway Plaza Hotel had not taken place. You can find that story HERE.
Now, the Casper Star-Tribune reports that the hotel has placed an advertisement in the paper announcing it will be sold at public auction. The auction is set for Thursday at the Natrona County Courthouse.
The Parkway Plaza laid off about 50 employees on Oct. 31, and said at the time, it would remain closed for six months while its new owners renovate the largest hotel in Casper before reopening in April, the hotel's sales manager Tabitha Overgard said that day.
Overgard said she received a call that morning to close the hotel, but declined to identify who called her or the new owners.
There is no indication whether there indeed were new owners in the offing or if an auction was planned all along.
However, there is little if any indication work is being conducted to renovate the hotel.
A search of Natrona County Clerk's Office property records shows the Parkway is still owned by CRU Casper, LLC -- a subsidiary of the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based CRU Real Estate Group.
CRU Casper, LLC, bought the hotel on June 15, 2015.
"Our goal is to make it not only the premier hotel in Casper but in Wyoming," Steven Senft, of the CRU Real Estate Group said then.
Senft did not return calls to his office or mobile phone on Friday.
Since then, it has had numerous difficulties including bouncing payroll checks, and failing to pay taxes to the Wyoming Department of Revenue. Failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes resulted in the suspension of its liquor license several times.
The financial troubles continued especially with liens filed by the state's Department of Workforce Services unemployment tax division and the Division of Workers' Compensation.
The state has not received payment of the back taxes, according to County Clerk records.