COLORADO SPRINGS —A company headed by Texas investor John Bushman has purchased the financially troubled Crowne Plaza Hotel for $14 million, with plans to switch it to his MCM Hotels chain and begin a major renovation.
The 500-room hotel at 2886 S. Circle Drive will become the Hotel Elegante Conference and Event Center and will undergo a “multi-million-dollar renovation” starting with replacing all guest room mattresses, adding a Starbucks Cafe, Blue Bell Ice Cream parlor, a playground for children, a sports bar, fire pit and outdoor seating, according to a press release issued Tuesday. A partnership called 513 Hotels Ltd., a division of Bushman’s Investment Corp. of America bought the hotel Tuesday from two partnerships that acquired it in 2007.
“We may not quite be The Broadmoor, but we’re the next best thing to it. If they’re ‘champagne and caviar,’ we’re ‘fine wine and rib-eye’ for approximately half the price,” Bushman said in the press release.
Bushman retained Alex Francis as general manager and Tracey Hampton as director of sales and marketing, as well as the rest of the hotel’s 250 employees. The hotel includes 50,000 square feet of meeting space in four ballrooms and 31 meeting rooms, a restaurant, lounge and small gift shop, a fitness center and indoor and outdoor pools.
The hotel is Bushman’s third major purchase in the Colorado Springs area in recent years.
