Resort on Mount Charleston sold to North Carolina couple for $4.8M
North Carolina hoteliers Colin and Deanna Crossman have expanded into Las Vegas’ nearby mountain community.
The Crossmans acquired the Resort on Mount Charleston, some 40 miles northwest of the Strip, from The Siegel Group. The Las Vegas real estate firm announced this week that it sold the 64-room hotel for $4.8 million.
The new owners are planning a big menu of changes for the 1980s-era property on Kyle Canyon Road, which faced foreclosure after the economy crashed and, according to the seller, has a strong meetings business but ended up “on the back burner” for upgrades.
“It has so much untapped potential,” Deanna Crossman said.
They also plan to rename it The Retreat on Charleston Peak, Colin Crossman confirmed.
As the owners of Rhea Hospitality, the Crossmans operate The King’s Daughters Inn, a 17-room hotel in Durham, North Carolina, and The Mayton Inn, a 45-room hotel in Cary, North Carolina. The couple wanted to expand “faster than we could by ourselves,” Deanna Crossman said, so they raised money from investors and shopped for acquisitions.
At first they dismissed the idea of buying a hotel in Las Vegas, figuring that it was too far and that they didn’t know the market. But there are daily nonstop flights from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Las Vegas, she said, and locals know the Resort on Mount Charleston, which had been on the market for a few years.
Las Vegas residents are the target clientele, she said, noting that locals often head to Mount Charleston to ski in the winter, escape the summer heat and “get back to nature.” Trails that can be accessed at the nearby Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway run behind the hotel.
The Crossmans want to overhaul the menus, expand the bar hours and make lots of physical upgrades to the building. “It needs a lot of love,” Deanna Crossman said.
Their plans include new furniture, bathrooms, paint and flooring in the guest rooms. According to Colin Crossman, the hotel carpeting is “just disgusting,” with some sections held together by duct tape.
“It’s time to bring it into a new era, a new chapter in its life, and we’re pretty excited about that,” Deanna Crossman said.
In 2008, Siegel Group founder Steve Siegel acquired a 50 percent ownership stake in the hotel and took over its management. But by 2012, the resort was headed for a foreclosure sale, Clark County records show.
Siegel — known for his Siegel Suites chain of low-priced apartments — said the foreclosure was tied to his partner’s loan, which he said was obtained before he acquired a stake in the hotel. He bought the debt on the property and acquired full ownership around the time the foreclosure loomed.
He said that the hotel at one point was “really struggling” but that he beefed up its marketing and focused mainly on building its events business.
The resort hosted a lot of big gatherings, he said, and he planned to expand the hotel. But “we just got really busy. It kind of always got put on the back burner.”
Siegel added that at any given time, his group was doing 15 to 20 other projects in Las Vegas and other cities.
“Something always came up and jumped ahead of it,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.