Dora Brothers affiliate loses downtown hotel in bankruptcy

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An affiliate of Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp. in Fishers has exited bankruptcy reorganization after giving up ownership of the downtown Comfort Suites City Centre hotel.

Dora Brothers, through Warsaw Hotel Partners LLC, opened the hotel at 515 S. West St., near Lucas Oil Stadium, in 2008. Four years later, in February 2012, Warsaw Hotel Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, listing assets of $6.8 million and liabilities of $12.1 million.

Earlier this month, on April 8, federal bankruptcy Judge Robyn L. Moberly signed off on Warsaw Hotel Partners’ motion to dismiss its filing. Through its lawyer, Dora Brothers declined to comment on the bankruptcy.

New York-based German American Capital Corp., which said Warsaw Hotel Partners owed it more than $13 million, filed to foreclose on the 130-room lodge in Marion Superior Court.

German American took ownership of the Comfort Suites by submitting a “credit bid” of $7.5 million. A credit bid is a legal maneuver in which a bank uses its debt in a property to acquire it.

German American provided Warsaw Hotel Partners a $12.6 million loan in February 2007 to acquire land and construct the Comfort Suites. The loan came due in November 2010, at which time Warsaw Hotel Partners still owed $11.2 million in principal, according to court documents.

Though just 6 years old, the Comfort Suites has an interesting history.

Dora opened a 143-room Comfort Inn and Suites on Capitol Avenue near South Street in 1996. But when plans for Lucas Oil Stadium were drawn up, they included the nearly three-acre parcel underneath the Comfort Inn.

Rather than get into a lengthy eminent domain battle, Dora made a deal with the Capital Improvement Board, which then was overseeing the stadium project. Dora agreed to sell CIB the Comfort Inn if it could find land for Dora to build another hotel.

Eventually, Dora was paid $12.8 million for the Comfort Inn. CIB found and purchased 2-1/2 acres of industrial land along West Street for $2.2 million and sold the land to Dora for that price to build the Comfort Suites City Centre.

Dora Brothers Hospitality operates 24 hotels in Indiana, Arizona and Utah, including nine in the Indianapolis area, according to its website.

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