Watergate Hotel in foreclosure; set to go up for auction

[marmar]

from the WaPo:



Watergate Hotel to Go on Auction Block Tuesday


By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 16, 2009


The Watergate Hotel will be auctioned Tuesday, five years after a developer bought it with hopes of restoring it to its glory days as a Washington icon.

Alex Cooper Auctioneers will take bids that morning at the company's Wisconsin Avenue offices from potential buyers with the capital to invest in one of the city's most famous buildings in the weakest economy in decades.

The city's 30-day notice of foreclosure, sent to hotel owner Monument Realty last month after the company defaulted on its loan, expires today. The notice lists an outstanding $40 million balance on the loan. Monument officials said two weeks ago that they hoped the lender, New York-based PB Capital, could agree to new terms before the property across from the Kennedy Center was forced into foreclosure. But apparently new investors did not step forward in time.

The hotel has been shuttered since 2004, when Monument bought it. It is not the first commercial property in the region to go on the auction block in recent months. But the sale of the hotel, part of the complex of six buildings made famous by the 1972 burglary that led to President Richard M. Nixon's resignation in 1974, is a signal that even such a prominent property is not immune. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503702.html?hpid=moreheadlines