Eastland Hotel in hands of receiver

PORTLAND — The financially troubled Eastland Hotel, a Congress Street landmark for more than 75 years, has been placed in the hands of a receiver.

A judge has turned the 204-room hotel over to National Hotel Realty Advisers, a Portsmouth, N.H., management company that will review its finances, assess its prospects and decide what should be done with the property.

The Eastland was purchased two years ago by the Florida-based Madden family, who put it up for sale last summer.

Superior Court Justice Roland Cole on Dec. 2 granted a request by Local Bank of Oklahoma that control of the hotel be taken away from the Maddens.

Court records show that the family owes more than $3 million to the bank, $300,000 in taxes to the state and $121,000 in franchise fees to the Radisson chain.

Employees have not been paid and the hotel has received notices of nonpayment from utilities. The hotel’s phones have been out of service for at least two days and the Eastland has been stripped of its affiliation with the Radisson chain.

Maggie Arsenault, a room attendant at the Eastland, said the hotel hasn’t been able to buy sink and bath stoppers, vacuum cleaner filters or even shampoo as its financial problems worsened.

“There was one day we ran out of toilet paper,” she said. “It was embarrassing.”

Depending on what the receiver decides, the Eastland could be auctioned to a new owner, a process that could shut down the hotel for weeks or months.

“If a receiver takes over a hotel with no phone system, unhappy employees, utilities that haven’t been paid and no franchise agreement, I’m not sure a receiver can salvage that situation,” said Portland lawyer David Hirshon, who represents Local Bank.

The Madden family did not object to the court order.

“I think the important thing from the Maddens’ standpoint is that this hotel is going to be an important part of Portland’s economic landscape in the future,” said Rufus Brown, a Portland lawyer who represents the family.