By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

The Crowne Plaza hotel in Niagara Falls is about to be sold to a binational firm.

Michael DiCienzo, vice president of Canadian Niagara Hotels, confirmed that his family-run, privately held business is buying the 391-room hotel on Third Street.

The deal is expected to close in the next few weeks. Terms were not disclosed.

NFNY Hotel Management LLC, an affiliate of Canadian Niagara Hotels, is purchasing the Crowne Plaza from GKK Hotel Niagara Owner LLC, a New York City subsidiary of Grammercy Investment Trust of New York. GKK Hotel Niagara bid $21 million for the hotel last March during a court-ordered foreclosure auction. Grammercy Investment Trust held the mortgage on the property and was sole bidder.

Since last spring, Grammercy has been marketing the hotel, which will remain open.

"This is not a struggling property," said Anthony LaTona, partner in Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP, which represented Grammercy Investment Trust. "My clients always had faith in the hotel. It's in a dynamic location. Niagara Falls is fortunate to have people like the DiCienzos stepping up to buy the hotel."

Only the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, with 604 rooms, is larger in Niagara Falls. The Crowne Plaza is the fourth-largest hotel in Western New York.

NS Partners, a partnership between Sentry Hospitality and Phoenix-based Namwest, owned and operated it but ran into financial troubles, mostly related to Namwest's own Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Sentry operated the hotel after Namwest's financial troubles took hold.

According to public documents, Grammercy had a $35.3 million lien on the property that led to last spring's foreclosure auction. It also was owed $775,749 in accrued interest while property taxes, valued at $602,859, had also accrued.

GKK Hotel Niagara paid the back taxes last year.

The deal will give the DiCienzo family a second hotel in Niagara Falls, N.Y. NFNY Hotel Management also owns a Days Inn and Denny's Restaurant near the Rainbow Bridge.

Across the bridge, Canadian Niagara Hotels has a portfolio of more than 2,500 hotel rooms - roughly 18 percent of the city's 14,000 hotel rooms. Among its properties is the Sheraton Fallsview, Marriott Fallsview, the former Brock Plaza - now Crowne Plaza - and Sheraton on the Plaza. Properties also house the Rainforest Cafe, Hard Rock Cafe, Fallsview Indoor Waterpark and Planet Hollywood.

"We've been in Niagara Falls (N.Y.) since the 1980s," Michael DiCienzo said. "We certainly understand the market."

He is encouraged by efforts by current Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster to turn the city around, saying, "Economically, it seems to be coming around."

The Crowne Plaza, which was constructed in the 1970s as part of an urban-renewal effort, has gone through a number of brand-name affiliations, including serving as a Radisson and Holiday Inn Select. When NS Partners took it over five years ago, a renovation effort saw all 391 rooms refurbished, plus new tenants such as
Starbuck's Coffee.

DiCienzo said his company wants to get a better handle on the hotel before determining what renovations or improvements will be made.

"It's a hotel that is in very good shape," he said. "That helped make it an attractive purchase for us."

Local hospitality industry leaders applaud the pending deal. The DiCienzos bring stability and will end the ownership revolving door that has plagued the hotel for more than a decade, according to insiders.

"The DiCienzos already know the market and that's a big plus," said John Percy, president and CEO, Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. "It's always easier when you have an owner who understands this marketplace. We welcome them."