Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hot Springs hotel fetches $16 million at foreclosure sale
The Hotel Hot Springs & Spa was sold at a foreclosure auction on Wednesday for $16 million to SBN V AR Hospitality LLC.
The foreclosure auction at the Garland County Courthouse attracted about 20 onlookers but attracted just one other bid — for $200,000 by Storm Nolan of CSK Hotels, a Fort Smith hotel and real estate development group, said Garland County Circuit Clerk Jeannie Pike.
SBN V AR Hospitality was the assignee of SBN V FNBC LLC for its interest in a foreclosure judgment of nearly $129 million against the 200-room hotel’s previous owner, a limited liability company in Niceville, Fla., called GRGCBHS. One of GRGCBHS LLC’s owners, Gary R. Gibbs, also of Niceville, has filed for personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which left his company as the defendant in a foreclosure suit filed over the 2017 failure of First NBC Bank in Louisiana.
Gibbs also developed Delta Resort & Spa in Desha County, which also has been placed in receivership and is on the market.
The Hot Springs hotel remains open and its sale at auction now allows SBN V AR to market the property. SBN V AR is an affiliate of Summit Investment Management LLC of Denver.
First NBC’s collapse in 2017 was the largest bank failure in the U.S. in a decade. One of its senior bank officials and two former clients have pleaded guilty to charges of borrowing millions of dollars through fraud. Gibbs hasn’t been charged with any crimes linked to his loans from First NBC.
After the bank was closed and put into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership, the FDIC sold off the loans, including those behind Gibbs’ purchase in 2015 of the Hotel Hot Springs & Spa. It was formerly the Austin Hotel.