BUSINESS BRIEF

Levis Commons hotel wants to refinance debt

8/12/2013

BOWLING GREEN — A hearing is set for today to consider a request for a court order by the majority owners of the Hilton Garden Inn at Levis Commons in Perrysburg.

The hotel owners want Wood County Common Pleas Judge Alan Mayberry to order Levis Commons developer Larry Dillin and two of his entities, Dillin Corp. and Levis Town Square Land LLC, to comply with terms of its lease to allow the hotel’s owner, Mr. Robert F. Voelker and his company, GHG Perrysburg LLC, to refinance the debt on the property.

In a complaint filed July 19 by Levis Common Hotel LLC, owned and controlled by GHG, Mr. Voelker said that the initial debt financing on the property matured in August, 2012, and has been receiving a temporary extension since. But Mr. Voelker must now refinance the debt or risk potential bankruptcy or foreclosure, harming him, his employees, and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, the bond issuer on the hotel.

Refinancing the debt would allow Levis Common Hotel LLC to exercise a purchase option on the property, but Mr. Dillin and his entities are holding up the refinancing and preventing the hotel from exercising its purchase option, the lawsuit states.

Under the terms of the lease, Levis Common Hotel has the right to purchase the property for $1 once agreements in the lease are fulfilled. The suit states that those agreements have been met, but Mr. Dillin is refusing to sign the required documents that would allow refinancing and the purchase option to go forward.