THOUSAND OAKS : 107-Room Hotel to Be Auctioned to Pay Off Owner’s Debts

A 107-room Howard Johnson hotel in Thousand Oaks has been placed on the auction block after its owner defaulted on a $75-million loan.

The hotel is scheduled to be sold today at a public auction at the Ventura County Government Center Hall of Justice in Ventura to help pay off the loan from the hotel’s investors.

The hotel at 75 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd. has been owned since 1986 by Minneapolis-based Cargill Leasing Corp. Cargill representatives were unavailable for comment about the sale.

But Sage Development Co., an independent hotel management firm that has been running the hotel since January, has no plans to close the hotel, a company spokesman said.

Sage Development took over management of the hotel from Prime Motor Inns Inc. The Fairfield, N.J.-based chain leased the site from Cargill until it filed for bankruptcy in September.

The Thousand Oaks hotel is one of six in the Howard Johnson chain in California being sold to pay off Cargill’s debts from the $75-million loan, the spokesman said.

Three others in Culver City, San Diego and Redwood City have already been sold, he said.

After he inquired about the sale, Thousand Oaks Finance Director Bob Biery said he was assured that the hotel would remain open.

Howard Johnson’s is one of the oldest and largest hotels in Thousand Oaks. The city receives about $1.2 million in bed taxes each year from the area’s dozen or so hotels and motels.