May 23, 2013
A Georgia hotel group was the only bidder this morning for a beach front hotel that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Irene.
The Sheraton Hotel property in Atlantic Beach went up for public auction on the front steps of the courthouse in Beaufort at 11:00 a.m.
The Newport Group from Augusta, Georgia bid $4.56 million in the foreclosure sale that lasted just a couple of minutes. A company spokesman says they plan to keep it a hotel, making a lot of repairs and changes. The first change would be getting a new hotel chain to franchise with as Sheraton took its name off the building.
The nine story hotel hasn't reopened since Irene came ashore, and was hit by legal troubles brought on by storm repairs.
Other potential buyers can still submit upset bids 5% over Newport's for the next 10 days. Newport says it could have possession as soon as December 27th and hopes to reopen the hotel by this summer.
Newport also owns the Hilton Riverfront in New Bern.
