By Robert Edwin Field
In the early 1980’s and at the age of twelve, Hamid Zahedi and his family left their native Iran and relocated to England. At twenty-two he arrived in the United States and attended and graduated from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana with a major in business. He and his wife Nasrin raised three sons in Northern New Jersey and Hamid (as he is widely referred to) first worked in the textile industry and later became an investor in the field of real estate.
Until the day in 2005 that he came to Lancaster, fell in love with the city because “It reminded me of the town of Bury St. Edmunds in England where I grew up,” and was impressed with the potential of restoring the Brunswick Hotel to its pasts glory as a Hilton, Hamid had not been involved with the operation of hotels.
Along with two other Iranian exiles, he acquired the 222 room Brunswick with its expansive common areas and meeting space and the adjoining former cinema for under $3 million dollars, a structure with a reproduction cost of $20 million to $30 million.
Situated at Chestnut and Queen Streets and originally a Hilton Hotel, it, along with the Hess Department store on Orange Street, anchored the ill fated Lancaster Square. The Hilton was a four star hotel. (The recently opened Marriott is designed to be three stars.) As was also the case with Hess, there simply was not sufficient business in downtown Lancaster to support the hotel and it started a long decline which led to the loss of the Hilton franchise and several other less prestigious affiliations over the years.
Owned by its initial lender, the hotel was maintained for decades through contracts with the military for week-long trainings of personnel. Then, around the beginning of the century, that arrangement ceased and the Brunswick further languished with its institutional owner eager to sell.
Lancaster based hoteliers chose not to purchase the property despite its apparent bargain price. One who surveyed the market situation remarked that, despite the high brick and mortar cost of the property, the downtown tourist and commercial travelers market was so weak that he would not accept the Brunswick if it were given to them because of its operating losses.
Perhaps in newness to the hospitality business, Hamid and his partners not only acquired the property but over the next four years invested several million dollars in operating and renovating 136 of the 222 rooms to three star standards. Hamid told NewsLanc that, were it not for the sharp recession, the Brunswick would have reached “break even” status in 2009.
The partners did not ask for millions in state grants. They did not request a county subsidy. They did not seek an exemption from city, school and county real estate taxes. Not a dollar of taxpayer funds went into the restoration …. just the money of the three partners and the blood, sweat and tears of Hamid, the stranger among us.
When it opened in the ‘70s, the Hilton had a “state of the art” fire suppression (sprinklers) and fire alarm system which exists in the Brunswick to this day and is identical to the alarm and fire suppression systems that currently exist in hundreds of hotels throughout the United States. It is typically deemed acceptable for public safety.
However, when a major renovation is undertaken, building codes require that the alarm system be upgraded to meet the most current standards. Work along that line has been underway and Hamid had been given to understand by the contractor that the City had extended the deadline until September.
As is customary, maintenance of the alarm system is contracted out to experts in the field, in this case to Yarnell Security Systems with scores of clients and which, according to its web site, “offers over 37 years of consistent service to Central Pennsylvania.” They make periodic inspections and provide reports.
If the alarm system malfunctions, it is Yarnell’s responsibility to quickly put it back into operation. This is usually a routine matter, requiring hours, and at most a day or two. According to Hamid, Yarnell arrived soon after the city inspection and restored the alarm system to operational status.
Yet the Brunswick was closed down by the Lancaster officials instantly upon the failure of a single test of an alarm. Furthermore, the hotel is not yet allowed to resume operations.
Hamid and his partners waited two full days before receiving notification by the city officials of requirements for reopening the hotel. An official letter was delivered on Friday afternoon accompanied by a two lists of demands, one from the Fire Bureau and the other from the Bureau of Code Compliance. Both are provided below:
Upon examination of the building and the City’s requirements, experts may consider the items to be of questionable merit for sudden closing and continuing to withhold an occupancy permit, but rather an attempt to justify precipitous and unwarranted actions.
Hamid is but a fractional owner and the principal who devotes himself to this project. Given what may appear to them to be a hostile climate (which will be further discussed in the NewsLanc‘s Convention Center series), the owners may choose not to reopen the hotel. Almost as bad, the City may be subject to a suit for many millions of dollars for what could be adjudicated as self serving actions by the City.
The circumstances of the sudden closing of the Brunswick immediately upon the opening of the heavily City subsidized and debt guaranteed Marriott Hotel two blocks away has drawn much attention. Just when the controversial Convention Center Project seemed to be behind us, it appears that the City has started another chapter.
Hamid is not a sophisticated hotelier. Others may have handled the relationship with the city fire department better. Mayor Rick Gray involved himself in the decision making, as evidence by his personally announcing the closing of the Brunswick. His background until recently has been as a criminal defense attorney.
Hopefully professionalism will yet prevail, the Brunswick will be safely reopened, and both Hamid Zahedi and Mayor Gray will be the wiser for it.
If people chose to stay at the Brunswick and not the Marriott, it was due to price…
No, I think this goes deeper; a take over maybe or something. Time will tell