The sale of a Ramada Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, was anything but a routine real estate transaction, and experts in this Appalachian city recognized its significance, giving it the 2023 CoStar Impact Award for sale/acquisition of the year.
The city of Asheville and brokers John Spake at Spake Real Estate and Austin Tyler at Dewey Property Advisors arranged to sell the aging property at 148 River Ford Parkway. The hotel, located in east Asheville, will be converted to apartments for the region's homeless population.
Along the way, Spake and Tyler helped obtain an environmental study of the property required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They also met with members of the surrounding neighborhood who were concerned that a homeless shelter is moving in.
The new owner, Shangri-La Industries, has renamed the facility Step Up on Second Street and will earmark half the units for homeless veterans and the other half for other homeless citizens. The units will be provided through HUD's voucher program.
About the project: Los Angeles-based Shangri-La acquired the 70,000-square-foot, 113-unit former hotel for $8 million in September from Trident Hospitality. Shangri-La has begun construction on converting the property to residences for homeless people. It's expected to open later this year.
What the judges said: "This deal is both a real estate transaction and a humanitarian project," said Michael Hoffman, a senior real estate adviser at The Tessier Group. "This is a great repurpose of an obsolete property."
"This sale will move the needle on the betterment and stability of the unhoused population that is most in need in this market," said Austin Walker, a senior adviser at Whitney Commercial Real Estate Services.
The sale "displays innovative thinking and an example of a municipality offering a practical solution to the difficult issue of homelessness," said Carla Barnard, managing director at Carla & Co. Real Estate Services.
They made it happen: Spake and Tyler were key players in the deal.