Five Years After Quake, Holiday Inn Reopens

Fresh from a $2.5 million face-lift, the Holiday Inn Express Hotel was rededicated Thursday--more than five years after it was forced to close by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The 132-room hotel boasts several improvements over its pre-temblor predecessor, including a fitness center, three banquet halls, a marbled front desk and foyer--and 38 steel reinforcement beams, said general manager George Noumer.

“Our reopening signifies to the community that we are back,” Noumer said. “Everyone else had rebuilt and people were wondering, ‘What are they going to do?’ ”

The hotel’s reopening was delayed after its owner at the time of the earthquake went bankrupt, Noumer said.

Then, three years ago, NAHOP Partners, L.P., a Houston-based development firm, bought the property. The firm owns and operates 16 hotels in the Los Angeles area, including the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza.

NAHOP concentrated on rehabilitating its other Los Angeles properties first, Noumer said, and began renovations at the Van Nuys Holiday Inn Express in July 1998.

The hotel actually reopened in January, but the ceremony was not held until Thursday to ensure operations were running smoothly.

On Roscoe Boulevard near the San Diego Freeway, the hotel expects to attract mostly business travelers because of its proximity to the freeway and Van Nuys Airport, Noumer said.