New owners of former Eagle’s Nest plan to reopen about half of hotel’s rooms this summer

QUINCY — Owners of a Quincy hotel that has been closed for nearly two years hope to reopen the facility this summer.

Balwant Aulck and Sukhchain Sandhu are listed as the managers of Hotel in Quincy LLC, according to records filed with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Their LLC is registered in Springfield. Aulck said he and Sandhu have worked together in the Seattle area for more than 20 years.

Hotel in Quincy LLC bought the 1.25-acre Eagle’s Nest property at 300 Gardner Expressway on May 31 for $525,000. The previous owner was Q ILL Development LLC. Ted Siebers of Quincy and Dennis Prock of Fort Myers, Fla., were listed as the managers.

Aulck said last week that roofing repairs recently were completed as part of “Phase 2” of the remodeling work. Also to be completed is the replacement of siding and windows.

“It’s all a facelift,” he said. “Give us another three or four weeks.”

Aulck said work has been done on the air conditioning and heating for the common area at the hotel. A plumber has been hired to begin looking at the bathrooms. 

“We’ve got to check the leaks where they need to be replaced. It’s been closed for quite a long time,” he said. “We are progressing very well. It’s looking really good with that new roof. What you plan doesn’t go through sometimes, but right now, our plan is (to open) around June, maybe July or August, somewhere in the third quarter of this year.”

Aulck said he and Sandhu are talking “with a couple” of companies — he specifically mentioned Best Western — to bring a “flag” to the hotel.

Aulck said the hotel has approximately 120 rooms, but not all of them will be available when it reopens. 

“We’re going to open one side first, which is probably around 50 to 60 rooms,” he said. “Then let’s see how it goes. The exterior work is going to be done for the complete building. We will open to 50 to 60 rooms, and then as we go, we can take a look at the remaining rooms. That’s enough room to take care of.”

He said plans call for eventually opening the top two floors of the hotel, giving them 86 available rooms.

“(The rest of the rooms will be) just sitting there,” Aulck said. “One day they will be used but let’s see how the demand and supply comes in, our vacancy rates and all that.”

He said he believes the remodeling work will eventually cost between $2.5 million and $3 million.

“We’re bringing it back, and hopefully it will be a good asset to the city and the community, Aulck said.

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 became 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.