Keating Taken Off Phoenix Hotel Venture

The government agency that controls the assets of the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan Assn. today removed its former owner, Charles Keating, from any management role in a Phoenix resort and hotel formally owned by the thrift.

Keating is being investigated for possible wrongdoing over the failure of the Irvine-based S&L;, which is expected to cost the government $2 billion to bail out.

“His services were no longer needed. . . . We wanted to bring in new management to the hotels,” said Dave Loveday, a spokesman for the government’s Resolution Trust Corp.

The Phoenix hotels are the 605-room luxury Phoenician Resort and the 344-room businessman’s Crescent Hotel--the two primary assets of the Lincoln unit Crescent Holdings Inc.