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Doctor’s Rx for reviving Liberty MetroPlex: commitment, $2M
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NEW HOTEL OWNER: Dr. Indira Sammy, the new owner of the MetroPlex hotel in Liberty, makes a point to reporters at a press conference as she discusses her plans for the facility. Behind her is Patrick Ungaro, township administrator.
By Don Shilling
The new MetroPlex owner hopes to spend $2 million on renovations.
LIBERTY — A Pennsylvania physician said she has put her medical practice on hold and is ready to do whatever it takes to restore the luster to the MetroPlex Hotel and Convention Center.
Dr. Indira Sammy and two family members last month bought the hotel last month for $900,000 from a bank that had foreclosed on the property. Lenders were afraid of the deal because the hotel has been losing money, so the partners used their own cash for the purchase, she said.
Sammy said the owners are so committed to restoring the hotel at Interstate 80 and Belmont Avenue that they are prepared to sell two hotels they own in Lancaster, Pa., if a bank won’t lend them the $2 million she wants for renovations.
“This isn’t a business for us. This is THE business,” Sammy said in a news conference at the hotel Friday.
Sammy said she is in the process of moving from Lancaster, Pa., to the Mahoning Valley because she wants to devote herself to the operation. An internist who has worked for the Veterans Administration, Sammy said she won’t be practicing medicine until hotel operations are on solid footing.
Patrick Ungaro, township administrator, and Jodi Stoyak, township trustee, joined Sammy at the news conference and said they were excited to have a committed operator for the hotel, which used to be a Holiday Inn before it ran into financial trouble.
“It’s a historic place in Liberty and in the Valley as well because of all the activities that have happened here,” Ungaro said.
In addition to the 152-room hotel, the MetroPlex has been home to Funny Farm comedy club, Choices nightclub and Teddy’s Restaurant.
Sammy said she thinks she can restore the MetroPlex on all levels.
“This place can be humming,” she said.
The property used to produce annual profits of about $5 million a year, she said.
Sammy is in negotiations with food service companies to take over banquet operations and hopes to have a deal around the end of the year. The banquet center can seat more than 2,000 people.
Sammy said she also plans to contract with someone to bring back a nightclub and restaurant to the property.
Part of the money she hopes to raise would be spent on renovating those spaces, she said.
She also would like to enclose the swimming pool, upgrade the heating and plumbing, install new carpeting and wallpaper and improve the parking lot.
She also is negotiating with hotel franchising companies and expects to have a brand name on the hotel soon.
Sammy, whose partners are her husband and brother-in-law, learned about the MetroPlex while she was in town exploring the purchase of another hotel. She saw a sale sign on the property and immediately switched her focus to the MetroPlex because of the space it had for dining, banquets and a nightclub.
It was critical that the hotel remained open during its recent financial trouble because hotels run down quickly when they are dormant, she said. Wells Fargo has been using a management company to operate the hotel.
Wells Fargo took over ownership in January 2008 when previous were unable to make loan payments. Travaglini Enterprises of Meadville, Pa., offered $2.75 million for the property at a September 2008 auction, but company founder Ray Travaglini died shortly after and the deal was not completed.
shilling@vindy.com