Visalia Hotel Has New Owners

Radisson to become Marriott

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. October 14, 2008

By Lewis Griswold, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

VISALIA, CA, February 23, 2006. The eight-story Radisson Hotel in downtown Visalia -- an important tool in bringing statewide conventions to town -- has been sold to Presidian Companies of San Antonio, which plans to convert it into a four-star Marriott hotel.

The handover -- for an undisclosed sum -- from Heritage Hotels & Resorts of Albuquerque, N.M., occurred at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

The 210-room hotel has now been renamed The Presidian Hotel. But the new name is only temporary, said Drake Leddy, president of Presidian Companies, which owns and operates 12 hotels and has developed $1 billion of real estate in its 20 years.

By mid-September to mid-October, the Visalia hotel will fly the Marriott Hotels & Resorts banner under a franchise arrangement, Leddy said.

The change to the Marriott flagship hotel brand name would make it the only four-star Marriott in the San Joaquin Valley.

"You won't have a nicer hotel between Sacramento and Los Angeles," Leddy said. Today, the nearest four-star Marriott in the Central Valley is in Rancho Cordova.

To bring the Visalia hotel to the Marriott standard, Presidian will invest $6.2 million to install flat-screen TVs in every room, business office amenities in each room for "road warriors," and plush bedding that meets a new Marriott standard, Leddy said.

Room prices would probably be around $125 a night, Leddy said, with discounts available for pre-booked conventions.

Local contractors will be hired where possible, he added. All hotel staff from the Radisson has been switched over. Visalia officials, who first learned in August about the potential change of ownership, are excited about the impending upgrade of a key tool in bringing conventions to Visalia's thriving downtown.

"It's a huge plus for the city," said Deputy City Manager Leslie Caviglia, whose duties include overseeing the city-owned Visalia Convention Center, which abuts the hotel. "The investment that Presidian plans, the Marriott name and the marketing and sales strength of Marriott -- it takes Visalia to a new level."

She added that Marriott is especially strong in bringing midweek business meetings to its properties, which "really dovetails nicely" with the convention center because it is traditionally strong on weekend events.

Leddy, speaking at a Wednesday news conference in Visalia, said he learned that the Visalia hotel might be for sale at a Hilton Hotel owners meeting last year in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He made a point of sitting next to people he didn't know, who turned out to be Heritage officials.

Meanwhile, named as general manager of the The Presidian Hotel is Joe Kuhn of Chula Vista, who previously was general manager of the Presidian-owned Hilton Garden Inn in Rancho Bernardo. Kuhn has 18 years in hotel management, including at Marriott properties. He said his family will move to Visalia at the end of the school year.

The Presidian Hotel will remain open during renovations, with no more than 25 rooms closed at a time, company officials said. Renovations include redoing the hotel restaurant, possibly into a steakhouse, and making it more upscale to meet the higher Marriott standards.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 622-2416.