Crowne Plaza Back on Track

By Justin Foss, Reporter

Tools

By Daren Sukhram

Story Created: May 19, 2009 at 9:40 PM CST

Story Updated: May 19, 2009 at 9:40 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Crowne Plaza Hotel is one of the tallest buildings in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Presidents have stayed there. And it even has a spot to land helicopters on the top.

But despite the glitz, the hotel's gone through a rough period. Just a year ago, the owners weren't paying bills and owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Employee paychecks bounced and health benefits were canceled.

But that's all changed now with new management in place. 16 stories up, you can see for miles.

You can see that view from the Top of the Five restaurant on the 16th floor. The restaurant closed under the previous owners.

In a year and a half, General Manager Deb Stout says the hotel took a major hit from the previous owner, Kronos Hotels. Not only did the reputation suffer, but the hotel's efforts on renovation slowed too.

"They might put in vanities before carpet, so when the carpet came they had to take out the vanities and lay down carpet, lots of things done backwards as someone would do it to make it efficient," said Stout.

Not all of the renovation is done yet, they still have to replace the carpet in the halls and the lobby, but they're not worried about this. They say it will get done, and soon.

Much of this renovation work was supposed to start as far back as 1999. It's going now, and it's going faster than ever.

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