Fort William Henry Corp. lists 87-room Best Western Lake George for sale

Fort William Henry Corp., owners of an 18-acre resort overlooking Lake George, is putting its 87-room Best Western Hotel on the market for $4.95 million.

The hospitality group has signed a contract with Marcus & Millichap commercial brokerage and the Best Western off Route 9N will be listed for sale next week.

Fort executives also want to sell five acres adjacent to the Best Western. The list price on that parcel is $1.5 million.

"There are still some investors out there," said president Sam Luciano. "Not everybody took a loss through this pandemic."

The Best Western had been listed for sale last year, but executives took the property off the market after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, creating questions about how well the summer resort community would perform in 2020.

Besides the Best Western, Fort William Henry Corp. also operates a 193-room hotel, a conference center and a museum located in the village at the southwestern tip of the 32-mile lake.

Both hotels had strong years, rivaling their performance in 2019, Luciano said. But they started off slow.

"We had a little bit of a hole to dig out of from March to mid-June," he said. "We had a very good period from mid-June through July and August. Transient [business] made up a good portion of group losses."

Luciano and Fort William Henry executives are optimistic they will find a buyer for the Best Western before the start of the summer season in 2021. Proceeds of a sale will be used to pay down debt and finance investments at their main property.

The Best Western just completed a five-year, $2 million renovation plan replacing furniture and remodeling bathrooms at the property located off Northway Exit 21 at the southern edge of the summer resort community.

Luciano figures those investments and the Best Western's proximity to the Interstate 87 Northway helped bookings remain strong.

Fort executives also were working on a long-term strategy to broaden the offerings beyond the 1,000 banquets, 50,000 museum visitors and 30,000 hotel guests it hosts most years before the pandemic forced hospitality companies across the country to pivot to make it through the year.

The decision to sell the Best Western is part of a plan by the hospitality group to focus more attention on its main campus to make it stronger in the future when the pandemic has subsided.