Seattle-based group buys former Eagle’s Nest hotel, which has been closed since February 2021

QUINCY — Mayor Mike Troup opened Monday’s Quincy City Council meeting by telling aldermen a Seattle-based group has bought the former Eagle’s Nest hotel at 300 Gardner Expressway.

The sale price was not immediately available, but Troup said the transaction was completed last week. The previous owner was Q ILL Development LLC, with Ted Siebers of Quincy and Dennis Prock of Fort Myers, Fla., as the managers.

The new owner is Hotel In Quincy LLC, with Balwant Aulck and Sukhchain Sandhu listed as the managers. Their LLC is registered in Springfield, but Aulck said he and Sandhu have worked together in the Seattle area for more than 20 years.

Aulck and Sandhu joined Rashpal Thind to create Bright Brain Hospitality, LCC, which bought the Gadsden Hotel in downtown Douglas, Ariz., for $1.6 million in late November 2022. The three men also recently bought a Motel 6 in Willcox, Ariz. Aulck said the men typically build five or six homes a year in the Seattle area. They recently took their skillset to the hotel industry.

“We bought (the hotel) in Wilcox, we remodeled it and it’s running,” Aulck said in a phone interview Monday night. “We turned it into suites, and it took us almost eight months. That hotel in Douglas is historical. We’re still processing the permits for it.

“As a builder, you go up and down with the market swings. We want to buy added asset value where we can remodel something and add the value. That’s what the Willcox project was, and that’s where we hope the Douglas project is. We’re going to try this one as well. We’ll work with a city. We are experienced. We are not a corporation or big-time people. We are a small builder who has been building for 25 years. It’s not like this is new for us.”

Troup said the buyers have made several trips to Quincy during the last two or three months. He recently toured the site with the investors, along with Director of Planning and Development Chuck Bevelheimer and Director of Inspection and Enforcement Michael Seaver.

Troup believes plans call for the north wing of the former Eagle’s Nest to be renovated into normal hotel rooms. The south wing would be “more of an extended stay hotel” with rooms booked for no longer than two months.

“They would provide cleaning services three times a week to make sure whoever’s running it doesn’t creep in with extra people,” Troup said.

Troup said he expects cleaning and renovation work to begin immediately. He’s anxious for the property to become viable again.

“The owners weren’t doing anything with it, and they haven’t for quite some time,” Troup said. “They’re talking about some extremely significant renovations, which … well, thank God. It needs a lot of work.”

The Eagle’s Nest was closed in February 2021 after city officials said they received complaints of water and security problems. Many customers were using the hotel as transitional housing until openings at apartments or houses become available.

The 129-room hotel opened on March 19, 1973, as a Ramada Inn at a cost of nearly $2 million. When owner Dwan Brown of Memphis, Tenn., failed to make loan payments, the hotel went into bankruptcy and was bought for $1.24 million in May 2000 by Carl Geisendorfer, president of Believers Broadcasting Corp. 

Geisendorfer did about $400,000 in renovations and renamed the building as the Shepherd’s Inn. Prock and Siebers then bought the hotel for $1.265 million at auction in December 2005, aligning it with America’s Best Value Inn a few months later. That franchise agreement eventually ended in April 2013, and the owners eventually renamed it the Eagle’s Nest.

In Monday’s 23-minute meeting, aldermen:

• Gave permission to AirMedCare Network to have the Air Evac helicopter at Upper Moorman Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 7.
• Gave permission to Chick’s On The River, 236 N. Front, to close Front Street between Vermont and Hampshire for the “Chick’s on the Block” event from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. July 3.
• Agreed with Airport Director Chuck Miller and the Aeronautics Committee to reject a $260,100 bid from Rees Construction in the Quincy Regional Airport terminal building. The foundation has a significant settlement, and a slab is causing large cracks in the building’s floor and problems with exterior doors and windows.
• Approved an invoice from Marsh USA, Inc. of Chicago for $16,283.03 for pollution liability insurance if hazardous waste is disposed at the recycling sites.
• Approved an ordinance granting a special use permit to Lee Bevill to allow for the operation of an investment advisory practice at 2240 Broadway.