Source: Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon
By Lee Fehrenbacher
Portland-based Provenance Hotels and Dallas-based Woodbine Development Corp., have jointly purchased the 100-room Governor Hotel at 614 Southwest 11th Ave. from the Royal Bank of Scotland. The purchase price was $20 million plus other consideration, according to Multnomah County records obtained through First American Title Insurance Co.
Woodbine is a commercial real estate company whose roots extend back to the Texas oil industry of the 1930s, and whose portfolio today includes everything from golf courses to mixed-use developments. Provenance owns and operates six hotels nationwide – including the Hotel Deluxe and the Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland – and manages more than 2,200 rooms.
Gordon Sondland, Provenance’s chairman and CEO, and Dupree Scovell, who recently launched Woodbine’s west coast office in Los Angeles, led the acquisition. Chris Burdett and Matthew Behrens of CBRE represented The Royal Bank of Scotland in the deal.
Originally built as the Seward Hotel in 1909, the hotel became the Governor in 1930 with new ownership but ultimately fell into disrepair during WWII when it was used to house soldiers. In 1985, it was registered on the National Register of Historic Places, and a major restoration of the original structure followed shortly thereafter.
In 2003, Grand Heritage Hotels Group purchased the Governor and announced plans to spend approximately $3 million sprucing up the property and relocating the lobby and entrance from Southwest 10th Avenue to the west side of the block on Southwest 11th Avenue.
A representative from Provenance said the new owners also have renovation plans in the mix but that the company couldn’t yet comment on the scope of the project.