This article originally appeared in Good Day, Berks — Spotlight PA’s free daily newsletter for Berks County and your daily dose of Berks County essentials. Sign up here.
WYOMISSING — Berks County officials will meet today to consider formally designating the former Crowne Plaza hotel as blighted after three years of vacancy.
Doing so would allow county officials to seize the large event space and hotel at 1741 Paper Mill Road in Wyomissing through eminent domain.
A committee of the Berks County Redevelopment Authority will meet via Zoom at 2:30 p.m. to consider the certification.
The property is owned by Lockwood Hotels, a development group with other hotels in Alabama, Florida, and New Jersey. In the past month, the owners have attempted to address the issues Wyomissing officials have flagged — including fire and construction code violations issued earlier this year, and cleanliness of the exterior — and sent a representative to speak with borough officials about the status of the property.
Steve Symons, property manager for the hotel, told borough officials during Wyomissing’s economic development committee meeting on Aug. 28 that Lockwood hired him earlier that month to resolve the code violations, avoid the county blighted designation, and “try to get in the good graces” of officials.
Symons said at the meeting he’s a local from Sinking Spring in Berks County and recognizes the challenges the property brought to Wyomissing, the county’s most populous borough.
The hotel was sold in 2021 by Berkshire Inn LP to Delaware-incorporated LW Reading III LLC for $10.7 million and was rebranded as a Radisson Hotel. It operated for only a few months before announcing its closure in March 2022. It has been vacant ever since.
“It was a huge eyesore for all of us. I think they are getting it now. I have their attention, and you have their attention,” Symons said at the meeting. “I think they [the owners] are going to step in and head in the right direction.”
The hotel is one of two key commercial properties that Wyomissing officials want to revitalize. Last year, sinkholes opened up in the parking lot of the Berkshire Mall during the holiday season. Since then, large blocks of parking around the mall have been cordoned off and borough officials have secured court-ordered repairs to the mall’s stormwater system.
Borough Manager Michele Bare said Wyomissing recently issued notices of violation to Namdar Realty Group, the mall’s owners, for failing to provide proof of repairs to its HVAC system. And in June, Wyomissing council members rejected a request from the company to defer the court-ordered repairs.
Namdar Realty, through a public relations firm, did not respond to requests for comment.
The owners of the former Crowne Plaza hotel, now being marketed as the Reading Vitality Hotel, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Symons said Lockwood will be making “huge changes” to the building early next year, such as bringing in new furniture and tidying up the interior, to get the space back into operation.
“All I was told is we are going to hit this thing really hard come the new year,” he said.
Bare told Spotlight PA she toured the hotel with Symons and Wyomissing’s codes officer and confirmed “all fire code violations have been remediated.” She said that Symons will apply for permits in the “next few weeks” to begin general repairs, with plans for further permits for renovations.
Wyomissing officials first condemned the hotel in February for property maintenance, fire code, and construction code violations. In March, the borough went to the county for the blighted designation. The property is currently going through the review process for that designation.
The current owners have in the past failed to follow through on promises to make changes and file for permits to make repairs in the past, Bare has said.
Redevelopment authority staff member Pauline Klopp said the agency hasn’t heard from the owners, but will invite them to its virtual meeting today. The owners have “made considerable progress,” she said.