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By Justine Griffin,
Medical Reporter
Tampa Bay Times
published July 12, 2017
This Website is used solely for my personal,
non-commercial use!
ST. PETERSBURG — The "Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg
Resort & Golf Club" is about to get a new owner.
Maryland-based "FelCor Lodging Trust", the owner of
the historic Vinoy resort in downtown St. Petersburg, is being
acquired by "RLJ Lodging Trust", the publicly traded
real estate investment trust owned by BET founder Robert Johnson.
FelCor purchased the Vinoy in 2007, and recently announced a
three-year plan to make $50 million in upgrades to the property.
These include building a new parking structure, a new 200-seat
restaurant, and renovating the spa, fitness center, golf course
and clubhouse. The company owns hotels across the country, including
a few Embassy Suites in South Florida and a DoubleTree Suites
in Orlando.
 See
previous coverage: St. Petersburg’s Vinoy Renaissance Resort,
breaks ground on renovations in May 2016.
RLJ Lodging Trust owns 122 hotels with more than 20,100
rooms in 21 states. The acquisition of Felcor will expand the
company’s reach to the country’s West Coast. It will
also create a $7 billion company with stakes in 160 hotels across
26 states and Washington D.C., making it one of the largest public
hotel real estate firms in the country. Johnson will oversee
the merged companies as executive chairman.
The all-stock transaction is expected to close by the end of
the year. A sales price and other terms were not disclosed.
Johnson and his ex-wife are the founders of BET, an American
cable network launched as the "Black Entertainment Television"
in 1980. They sold it to Viacom in 2001. Johnson’s ex-wife,
Sheila Johnson, owns her own hospitality company, "Salamander
Hotels & Resorts", which purchased the "Innisbrook
Resort and Golf Club" in Palm Harbor, in 2007. Together,
Johnson and his wife are known as the first African-American
billionaires.
The Vinoy, a historic St. Petersburg landmark at 501 Fifth Ave.
NE, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It
opened in 1925 and was leased to U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S.
Maritime Commission during World War II. It reopened to the public
in 1944 and closed in 1974. The hotel sat neglected until it
was renovated by New York developer Fred Guest. It reopened in
1992.
The hotel is managed by Marriott. It’s unclear if that will
change under the new ownership. Calls to both "RLJ Lodging
Trust" and "FelCor Lodging Trust" were not returned.
The Vinoy is the second iconic upscale hotel in the St. Petersburg
area to find new ownership this year. In January, the "Don
CeSar" on St. Pete Beach was purchased by "Host Hotels
& Resorts". Formerly managed by "Loews", the historic
"Pink Palace" is now run by "Davidson Hotels & Resorts".
See also:
What’s
in a name Aymer Vinoy Laughner: Built downtown palace ....(10/1990)
From ritzy to ratty and back again, The Vinoy
has come full circle ......(7/1992)
The story continues: See 'Vinoy verdict: exceptionally
elegant' story ...(8/1992)
The Vinoy celebrates the 10-year anniversary
of its grand reopening ..(8/2002)
Been 20 years since The Vinoy had its grand
reopening, renaissance ...(7/2012)
Vinoy House was once Aymer Vinoy Laughner’s
winter home ..............(5/2014)
The Vinoy Legacy: The $93 million restoration
and (more history) ....(11/2014)
The Vinoy originally opened 90 years ago, a
step back (retrospect) ......(7/2015)
The Vinoy will be getting a facelift: breaks
ground on renovations .......(5/2016)
Paul’s Landing at the Vinoy is the newest restaurant to open ................(3/2018)
The old Vinoy, the battle to save it and the
power of legacy ...................(6/2018)
More stories and chronological timeline of
Vinoy (more history 2) .......(9/2019)
St. Petersburg’s Vinoy hotel planning remodel for 2022 .........................(9/2021)
More pictures of The Vinoy
Go Back to The Vinoy history timeline
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2019, Tampa Bay Times. All rights reserved.
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