The former management company of a now-defunct and often-blighted Gayborhood hotel recently purchased the property, and plans to rehab and reopen it.
The Wankawala Organization purchased Parker-Spruce Hotel from owner Spruce Hotel Corp. late last month for nearly $3.5 million. Spruce Hotel Corp. had owned the property since the early 1980s and Wankala had been leasing and managing it for the past several years.
The hotel has been shuttered since the fall, after a small fire broke out in an upper floor, prompting citations by Licenses & Inspections that pre-empted its reopening. The building was home to The Westbury, one of the city’s longest-running LGBT bars, which closed in November, after Wankawala management indicated the property would remain closed indefinitely.
Mihir Wankawala, the organization’s managing director, did not respond to repeated requests for comment as of presstime.
Wankawala told the Philadelphia Business Journal that his company will spend 12-15 months renovating the building and will reopen it as a higher-end hotel, with 110-120 rooms.
Parker-Spruce had long been a haven for crime. City Councilman Mark Squilla told PGN this past fall that he planned to work with Wankawala, if the sale went through, to hold community meetings to address the concerns of local residents and business owners about the property.
Squilla did not respond to a request by presstime.