Developer says downtown hotel project still on

By Brian McNeill

Published: November 12, 2008

The developer of the Landmark Hotel on the Downtown Mall is disputing an assertion by owner Halsey Minor that the $30 million luxury hotel project has been stalled because of financial prob-lems.

“I’m the developer. We’re still building,” said Lee Danielson. “I don’t think we have any issues with the bank. We’re still building today. We’ll still be building to-morrow. And we’ll be building the day after that.”

In an interview with The Daily Progress late Tuesday, Minor said that the hotel project’s bank has failed to pony up the full promised $24 million loan, after he invested $7 million in equity. Danielson said Minor might be a “little confused” about the nine-story, 100-room hotel project’s status.

“He’s not really a real estate guy,” Danielson said. “He keeps his own counsel. I don’t know why he says the things he does. I suggest that you Google him and see what else he’s gotten up to.”

Minor, a millionaire and founder of the CNET Web site, has recently made news for exchanging lawsuits with Sotheby’s Inc. over its sale of artwork. The auction house sued Minor on Sept. 1 for allegedly not paying for three paintings totaling $13.8 million. Minor subsequently filed a class action lawsuit against Sotheby’s that claims the company conceals its economic interests in artwork it sells, as he says it did when he bid $8.6 million on Edward Hicks’s “The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity.”

Minor said Tuesday that the Sotheby’s lawsuits do not have anything to do with the Landmark Hotel project.

Several top officials connected with the Landmark Hotel project referred all questions Tuesday evening to Minor. The bank, Silverton Bank of Georgia, is checking into the status of the loan, said bank spokeswoman Cristi Kirisits. A hotel-financing subsidiary of the bank, called the Specialty Finance Group, was the underwriter of the hotel project’s loan, she said.

The Daily Progress has contacted Minor for additional comments. A message was not immediately returned.

Despite Minor’s comments, Danielson said, all is well and proceeding smoothly with the hotel’s construction, which is slated to wrap up in summer 2009.

“Maybe Mr. Minor knows something that I don’t,” Danielson said. “But I doubt it.”