SAN CLEMENTE : Former Ramada Inn to Keep Operating

After years of financial struggle, the owner of the largest hotel in San Clemente, the former Ramada Inn, has decided to keep it open rather than sell it to San Clemente Senior Services.

Hotel owner Larry Gold said he recently ended negotiations with the nonprofit group that wanted to buy the hotel and convert it into low-cost apartments for senior citizens. He said it became evident the group couldn’t raise the money.

“I would not have backed out of it had (the group) been able to get the financing,” Gold said.

In a letter to San Clemente Senior Services Director Marilyn Ditty, Gold said he had “ambivalent feelings” about the decision.

“Your effort on behalf of the seniors had won my support since we started working on the transaction back in November of 1991,” Gold wrote. “Your stewardship of a project, so lightly dismissed by many as impossible to achieve, has been a case study of outstanding management.”

But Gold said he believes the hotel, which is still operating under Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, has a chance of finally finding success.

Ditty was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but senior services officials have said they will try again to buy the hotel if there is ever a court-ordered sale.

Under new management, the 110-room hotel was recently named Casa Clemente, though the old Ramada Inn signs have yet to come down.

Local restaurateurs Ann and Keith Phillips, owners of the local Rose & Crown British Pub and Restaurant, have stepped in to run the new hotel steakhouse, Los Vaqueros. Gold said he is also considering the possibility of installing extra signs to help visitors find the hotel, located on a hard-to-find side street off Avenida Pico near Interstate 5.

“Hopefully we can get people to be able to find the place,” Gold said.