One of my marketing vendors tells me that if I eat a candy bar I should send a press release on the taste.  He is joking, but every business joke has a little bit of truth in it.

Every time our office undertakes a substantial event, we utilize press relations to promote the project.  Below is the second story coming from a release sent yesterday, March 2, 2009.  The third local article should come out on Friday.  This type of promotion can not be bought.

Who wants to own the Delaware Hotel?

By Andrew Tobias
Staff Writer, Delaware Gazette

This question could be answered later this month when the well-known Delaware eyesore, located at 351 S. Sandusky St. is slated to be auctioned off at a Delaware County sheriff sale.

The auction will be held at 10 a.m. March 18 in the first-floor lobby area of the Hayes Government Services Building at 140 N. Sandusky St. in Delaware.

Inspectors closed the hotel in September due to numerous health, fire and zoning violations.

Bids for the 5.4 acre property and four-story hotel will start at $860,000, or two-thirds of the sheriff's appraised value of $1,290,000, according to auctioneer Gryphon Realty Advisors, of Lewis Center.

Prospective buyers can tour the property between 1:30 p.m and 3:30 p.m. March 11 and 16.

Richard F. Kruse, the president of Gryphon, said the hotel's location off U.S. 23 made it a "tremendous investment opportunity" and a good value for hotel operators.

"While the property needs some corrective actions before the business can re-open, any experienced operator can accomplish what needs to happen quickly and re-start the business into a profitable venture," he said in a written release.

Gryphon will provide interested parties with information about the property's deficiencies.

"The more the prospective purchaser knows about the property, the more comfortable they are," Kruse said.

Whoever purchases the building would have to make significant improvements in order to be compliant with health and safety codes, Delaware City spokesman Lee Yoakum said.

Before re-opening, Yoakum said, the owner of the property would also need to get the OK from inspectors.

"Whatever ends up there is going to take some work and some investment," he said.

In September, inspectors with Delaware City, the Delaware General Health Department and the state fire marshal's office found an extensive number of violations: the smoke detectors in about 95 percent of the rooms were inoperable or without batteries, some rooms had exposed wiring, faulty air-conditioning units, food scraps left in uncleaned rooms, mold and water leaks.

Inspectors also found the hotel allowed guests to stay much longer than the 15 days allowed by code.

The hotel, which first opened in 1974, previously failed inspection and was closed in November 2007. The violations were remedied and the building re-opened for business. It remained operating until the 2008 code violations.

Pragat Prayosha LLC, the corporation that owns the hotel, has been foreclosed upon after it defaulted on a $1.65 million loan it took out to buy the property in 2007. There is also a tax lien on the property and Pragat owes the county about $38,000 in back taxes, according to the treasurer's office.