Canadian Investor Buys Another Cleveland Historic Hotel

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Renaissance Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland’s historic Renaissance Hotel is about to change owners. Skyline International Development Inc., a Toronto-based hotel owner and developer, announced this week that it has entered into an agreement with a company controlled by CTF Holdings Ltd. to buy the property for a hair under $20 million.

JLL brokered the deal. Skyline said that it competed against three other bidders for the hotel. The Renaissance Cleveland represents the Canadian company’s third acquisition in the U.S. and the second in the Cleveland market. Skyline also purchased the historic Arcade building for just under $7.7 million in 2011.

The 491-key Renaissance Cleveland was constructed in 1918. It occupies nearly 1 million square feet of space and includes 15,000 square feet of penthouse space, 68,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space, several restaurants, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and parking for 304 vehicles. Skyline said that it intends to start work on a multi-million-dollar renovation of the property once the deal closes in October 2015. The Renaissance Cleveland is currently managed by Marriott Corp.

“Throughout our near 20-year history, Skyline has made substantial investments into other historic hotels and resorts and we will do the same with this acquisition,” Gil Blutrich, president and chairman of Skyline, said in a statement. “We will renovate this landmark hotel, by instituting our world-class asset management strategy, maximizing client retention and applying our management expertise to streamline operations, cut waste and provide a superior level of customer service.”

“Our goal is not to rebrand or reposition the hotel — there is tremendous value behind its heritage and we want to not only preserve that, but to convert it into an efficiently run enterprise that will meet our aggressive short-and long-term goals in occupancy and customer satisfaction,” Michael Sneyd, Skyline’s CEO, added.

Photo credit: Skyline International Development Inc.