Owner of shuttered Inglewood hotel seeks to liquidate: Lee Hotel Corp. files for Chapter 7 in bankruptcy court.

The company that owns and operated the former Park Plaza hotel between the Hollywood Park racetrack and the Great Western Forum sports arena in Inglewood has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Lee Hotel Corp. filed papers with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles on June 29. Chapter 7 bankruptcy would entail liquidating the property under the direction of the bankruptcy court.

The 360-room hotel, the largest in Inglewood, closed suddenly and mysteriously in late 1991 and has not reopened.

According to the bankruptcy filing, Lee Hotel Corp., operator of the hotel, has assets of $20,000 and liabilities of $15 million. The president and principal owner of Lee Hotel Corp. is Charles Lee, a hotel operator who at one time or another has owned at least two other big properties in Los Angeles County. In addition, Lee has owned a hotel in Oakland and has attempted to purchase a major resort in the Palm Springs area.

From available information, it appears Lee has owned or owns each hotel through a different corporate entity. In the Lee Hotel Corp. bankruptcy filing, the only asset listed is the former Park Plaza at 600 S. Prairie Ave. in Inglewood.

A spokesman for the City of Inglewood, Truman Jacques, said he did not know that Lee Hotel Corp. had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He said the city doesn't know what is going to happen to the property.

"Since it closed, various people representing various interests have come to City Hall asking about the hotel," said Jacques. "There's been some interest in buying it but no one it seems has been able to get through the maze of paperwork involved. Now maybe something will happen."

He added, "I know the city is very anxious for that property to be used properly. It's a valuable asset on a valuable piece of property for the city. The feeling is that we would like to see it remain a hotel."

Under Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, property is liquidated under the direction of the court. The usual procedure is to auction off the property or turn it over to the primary creditor.

Lee Hotel Corp.'s primary creditor is ITT Commercial Finance Corp. in Chicago, which is owed $13.6 million, according to the bankruptcy papers. Andrew Pauley, a Santa Monica attorney representing ITT, said it is company policy not to comment on pending legal matters.

Charles Lee or officials at his companies did not return phone calls for comment.

The bankruptcy attorney for Lee Hotel Corp., Rigoberto Obregon of Los Angeles, said the company filed Chapter 7 papers to preclude foreclosure proceedings. He said ITT had filed a notice to foreclose recently and it was at that point Lee decided to file for bankruptcy.

"What you have to do here is read between the lines, to understand the politics," he said. "In those 18 months since it (the hotel) closed, ITT must have thought there was a chance to sell it. That's why nothing happened for so long."

Obregon said Lee is now actively negotiating with a potential buyer of the former Park Plaza. The attorney would not identify the interested party.

Obregon said Charles Lee plans to remain in the Los Angeles County hotel business, despite the Chapter 7 filing on the Inglewood property. He confirmed that Lee still owns the 760-room Airport Marina Hotel on Lincoln Boulevard, as well as a hotel in Oakland. A spokeswoman for the Clarion Edgewater Hotel in Long Beach said Lee no longer owns that property. The spokeswoman declined further comment and the general manager of the hotel did not return a Business Journal phone call.

Obregon could not confirm that Lee had bid on a resort property near Palm Springs some time during the past 12 to 18 months, as has been rumored in the industry.

According to the bankruptcy papers, two other companies operated by Lee had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection during the past 12 months but both of those cases were dismissed at Lee's request.

In April 1993 Lee's Airtel Hotel Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection, as did the Long Beach Marina Hotel Inc., in July 1992. Airtel Hotel Inc. is based at the Airport Marina property in Los Angeles and the Long Beach Marina company operated out of what is now the Clarion hotel.

Obregon said he was unfamiliar with the other two bankruptcy filings and could not say for sure whether Airtel is the owner of the Airport Marina or Long Beach Marina owned the Clarion.

The Park Plaza was at one time a popular hotel in Inglewood with horse-racing and sports fans. In addition, the hotel did a lot of meetings and restaurant business, as well as hosting a number of City of Inglewood functions.

It is unclear exactly how long Lee has owned the hotel but when it closed down, residents of the area and former workers said there were management problems at the property, improvements went undone, bills were not being paid and some utilities had been shut off.

Shortly after it closed, Lee said he planned to remodel the hotel and reopen it.

Since it debuted in the early 1970s, the hotel had operated under the names Airport Park, Days Inn Park Plaza and the Park Plaza. It was a mid-range hotel with room rates of about $100 a night.

Jacques, the spokesman for Inglewood, said the city has not considered offering a potential buyer direct financial subsidies to buy the property. "We are not in the hotel business and we don't want to be. We would consider things like tax incentives but not direct subsidies," said the spokesman.