Pinellas Park automobile entrepreneur buys Red Rose Inn & Suites

BUYER: LBMT Properties LLC (principal: Louis Spiro), Pinellas Park
SELLER: Gerard Mchale Jr. as Chapter 11 trustee for the bankruptcy estate of Oakwood Place Inc.
PROPERTY: 2011 N. Wheeler St., Plant City
PRICE: $1.5 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.2 million, March 2002
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Berger Singerman LLP, Miami

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A purchase 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 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 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.

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