Navy base closure signals end for Brunswick hotel

BRUNSWICK – The closing of the Brunswick Naval Air Station is several years away, but a hotel that served military families and the local community for 40 years isn’t waiting to find out how the base closing will affect business.

The Atrium Inn and Convention Center, which is located a couple of hundred yards from the base, will close next month, said Robert Rosenthal, an owner.

Rosenthal said he’d like to see the property used for a different purpose. His decision doesn’t affect companion businesses, Winner’s Sports Grill and Winner’s off-track betting parlor. Those will stay put under separate ownership.

Over the years, the Atrium served travelers and provided temporary housing for scores of Navy personnel and their families.

Hotel visitors are greeted in the lobby by colorful parrots. The Atrium has an indoor badminton court, an indoor shuffleboard court, footbridges, a pool table and a ping pong table. Its courtyard contains a waterfall, stream and a pond.

Twenty-five jobs will be lost when the hotel closes in a few weeks.

“It’s the uncertainty of what is going to happen at the base over the next five years,” said General Manager Bonnie Adams. “It’s unsettling as far as the hospitality industry is concerned. We may be the first to go, but we probably won’t be the last.”

Beginning in December 2008, the first military personnel will start receiving their permanent change of station orders to a Navy base in Jacksonville, Fla., where the Brunswick squadrons are being moved, said base spokesman John James.

There will then be a gradual drawdown of military and civilian personnel through September 2011, when the base is scheduled to close, James said.