After exploring sale options, owner of Radisson Philadelphia Northeast opts for multimillion-dollar
The Radisson Hotel Philadelphia Northeast, located at 2400 Old Lincoln Hwy in Trevose, will undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation to its guest rooms, restaurant, bar and other public spaces.
By Emma Dooling
After testing the market for a potential sale, the owner of a Bucks County hotel is now planning a multimillion-dollar renovation of the 8-acre property instead.
The Radisson Philadelphia Northeast, located at 2400 Old Lincoln Highway in Trevose, was put up for auction this spring with a starting bid of $4.65 million. The auction, held via commercial real estate auction platform RI Marketplace from April 17-19, was a way for the hotel's owner, TJM Properties, to test the current market and explore a sale of the property.
But when the Clearwater, Florida-based real estate investment firm did not receive a high enough bid to consider selling, it changed course, according to Matt McCarthy, the company's director of operations.
“We think right now the timing just wasn’t right," McCarthy said. He declined to share the bid amount at which the company would have been willing to sell.
TJM Properties purchased the 49-year-old hotel in 2015 for $10.5 million. Property records put the estimated market value of the property at approximately $14.3 million.
Now, McCarthy said the company is "diving back into" its renovation plans.
Built in 1974, the six-story hotel has 275 rooms and approximately 15,500 square feet of meeting and event space, according to the listing on RI Marketplace. It is in close proximity to Parx Casino, Neshaminy Mall and Benjamin Rush State Park.
TJM Properties is still in the early stages of planning the renovation, but McCarthy said it will include a complete overhaul of the hotel’s guest rooms and cosmetic updates to its restaurant and bar. Other public spaces in the Radisson, such as the lobby, front desk, gym and pool area, will get facelifts as well.
With these renovations, TJM Properties is hoping to "better position" the hotel in the surrounding market.
“A lot of the stuff going on with the Parx Casino and some other stuff in the area, we’re overall really excited about," McCarthy said, referencing Parx Casino's recently granted approval to move forward with plans to build an adjacent hotel that will span 13 stories, have 300 guest rooms, two restaurants and a 14,000-square-foot banquet hall to host events.
"We’re lagging. We’re behind on this renovation, and so we want to, we need to, just update first so I can give the sales team something they can be proud to sell.”
The forthcoming renovations won't be the only ones undertaken at the Radisson of late. In early 2022, TJM Properties completed top-to-bottom updates to the hotel's two large ballrooms and meeting spaces to bring the areas into "this century," McCarthy said.
Those were especially important given the hotel's popularity for group bookings and corporate meetings and events. McCarthy estimated that the food and beverage programs and event spaces together bring in between $2 million and $3 million per year.
TJM Properties hopes to start work on the next round of renovations this fall for a potential completion date in the spring of 2024. The company also plans to keep the Radisson flag and will work with the brand to renovate its space to the latest standards for the franchise. McCarthy said TJM Properties is aiming for the total cost of the renovations to be $4 million to $5 million.
The company currently owns three other hotels in Syracuse, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City. It also owns four senior living facilities, three of which are in Florida and one in Virginia.
TJM Properties previously owned the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City but sold the property in 2019.