The Trenton Times published the following article on April 29, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton Marriott board prepares to ask city for $3M to renovate, transition hotel

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on April 29, 2013 at 8:36 PM, updated April 29, 2013 at 8:48 PM

TRENTON — The hotel board plans to come to city council hat-in-hand again next week to update city council on the progress of the Trenton Marriott and ask for $3 million for the renovation and transition of the downtown hotel.

At its meeting tonight, the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corp. also authorized board chairwoman Joyce Kersey to finalize negotiations and contracts with franchisee Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and management company Marshall Hotels & Resorts.

One month after council begrudgingly approved a $295,000 cash call to pay late bills and keep the struggling hotel open until June, the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corp. hotel board will have to try to convince council again to invest more money into a hotel that’s struggled to climb out of the red.

The city-owned Trenton Marriott is currently in flux, and come June 15 is expected to become a Wyndham hotel and gain a new management company. Current hotel brand Marriott and management company Waterford Hotel Group declined to extend their contracts with the hotel past this year.

Board members voted 3-1 last night to allow Kersey to enter into final contracts with Wyndham and Marshall and pay a $10,000 deposit for a Wyndham franchise application fee. The board will have to pay an additional $39,000 just to apply to Wyndham for the brand.

Board member Michael McGrath was the lone “nay” vote on the contracts.

“I won’t sign off on a contract that hasn’t been presented to me,” he said.

Kersey said the contracts could be finalized in another day or so but said she couldn’t divulge the contract amounts. The board recently signed a $5,000-per-month contract with Marshall to navigate the hotel transition through June 14. Marshall’s management agreement is expected to last three years.

The Wyndham franchise contract will require council’s approval; the Marshall contract will not.

Replacing Marriott and Waterford will prove costly, though — and city council will ultimately have to decide if the city can afford the transition and renovation costs that will accompany the June turnover.

At the hotel board meeting tonight, Kersey said she would try to schedule a presentation for council’s May 7 meeting.

“We definitely have to go ahead and go through city council,” McGrath said. “We need to, at the very least, elicit any questions they have now.”

Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, who attended tonight’s meeting, agreed.

“I wanted to know if the board was planning on coming back to council,” she said. “Do you plan to come back to council, the full body, and give a presentation of funds, what the expenditures look like, what other company is planning to invest and what the bottom dollar line is going to be?”

Kersey said the board would try to answer all those questions in its presentation.

Wyndham and Marshall Hotels & Resorts, the incoming management company, have said it will cost $2.3 million to renovate and refresh the 11-year-old hotel and up to another $550,000 in transition costs, including $151,000 for a new property management computer system, $275,000 to replace Marriott-branded items and $68,000 for a new marketing campaign.

The $2.3 million Property Improvement Plan that outlines the renovation costs calls for $872,000 in room upgrades, including $138,885 for new carpets and $125,000 for new vinyl wall treatments, and $70,000 to paint and refurnish the hotel’s ballroom, among other expenses.

Councilman George Muschal, one of three council members who voted against last month’s cash call, said he would continue to vote down any attempts to pour more taxpayer dollars into the hotel.

“That’s $3 or $4 million we could use to put police back on the street,” Muschal said. “You’re going to take $3 or $4 million and you’re not going to put it into police, you’re going to put it into a hotel that’s failed since it started? A hotel isn’t going to work.”