Red Rose Inn to be reconditioned, resold

PLANT CITY — LBMT Properties LLC, a company led by Louis Spiro of Pinellas Park, purchased the 261-room Red Rose Inn & Suites for $1.5 million.

The price equated to $5,747 per room.

The two-story hotel was built in 1973 and stretches across six buildings on 7.8 acres south of Interstate 4. The property, which is located at 2011 N. Wheeler St., Plant City, also includes a banquet center that can hold up to 500 people.

Spiro, who owns an automobile business, viewed the purchase as a short-term investment.

“We just bought it to recondition it and remarket it,” he says. “We do not plan to reopen it.”

The Red Rose was the final piece of property to be sold as part of the East Coast Brokers and Packers Inc. and the Madonia family Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The real estate and equipment assets of East Coast Brokers & Packers have already been sold off through several auctions handled by Murray Wise through Crosby and Associates Inc., Woltz & Associates and Weeks Auction Co. Inc. The Plant City Observer reported the sales, including the Red Rose, generated $77.3 million, but creditors are owed at least $100 million.

The hotel previously sold for $2.2 million in 2002.

LBMT Properties LLC mortgaged the property to Wilder Corp. of Delaware for $1.6 million.