Downey Approves Sale of Hotel

The City Council has approved the sale of the Embassy Suites Hotel, the centerpiece of the city’s redevelopment program, to a Japanese corporation for $31 million.

Sanwa Jutaku Co. Ltd. of Osaka is buying the 220-room hotel and a nearby restaurant from an investment group headed by Robert E. Woolley of Irving, Tex. The sale is scheduled to become final Friday, said lawyer Robert S. Mautner, who is representing Woolley’s group--Downey Hometel Limited Partnership.

City Council approval was required because Hometel owes the Downey Community Development Agency $480,000 on an outstanding loan for the redevelopment project, which is adjacent to the Civic Center.

The city on Tuesday approved the transfer of the loan, which is to be repaid in four years, to Sanwa Jutaku, City Atty. Peter M. Thorson said. The city and Sanwa Jutaku also agreed to share parking lots--the current practice--in the frequently congested Civic Center area.

Sanwa Jutaku has guaranteed the city that it will maintain the property as a hotel and restaurant for at least 10 years.

Yoko Maeda, president of Sanwa Jutaku, said the Embassy Suites Hotel will be her firm’s first acquisition in the United States. Sanwa Jutaku specializes in residential development in Japan, she said.

“It’s a nice hotel and the investment is very excellent,” Maeda said.

The sale of the hotel, which opened in 1985, is expected to generate up to $120,000 a year in additional property tax money for the city’s redevelopment program, said Lee Powell, assistant city manager.

Currently, the property is assessed at $18.95 million, Powell said. City officials will push to have it reassessed this year to reflect the $31-million price, which would mean about $120,000 in additional revenue, Powell said.

The eight-story Embassy Suites is the most ambitious project completed since Downey formed its first redevelopment zone in 1978.