Developer closes purchase of Austin Hotel

A Franklin, Tenn., developer said Thursday that he had closed the purchase of the Austin Convention Hotel & Spa and would assume control of the property at midnight.

Gary R. Gibbs, who is the principal owner of Coastal Phoenix Investments LLC, declined to release details of the transaction.

Gibbs said he plans to completely renovate the property, located adjacent to the Hot Springs Convention Center, over the next several months, and that it would remain in operation during that time. “It will become a very nice hotel,” Gibbs said. In April 2014, former City Manager David Watkins said Gibbs had worked for about a year to secure the Austin Convention Hotel & Spa property, and thought the sale would become final in late June 2014. Gibbs later told The Sentinel- Record he hoped to close on the property in late September or early October 2014.

The Hot Springs Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution in August 2014 for a 50- year ground

lease with Gibbs for the cityowned building at 349 Malvern Ave. that once housed the city’s municipal utilities and finance departments.

The resolution stated that the lease is with GRGCB LLC for the “construction and operation of a hotel expansion … which shall be completed within 30 months from the execution of the lease.”

Gibbs said Thursday that an announcement on the hotel’s future plans would be forthcoming.