The historic Grand Union Hotel is up for sale.
A group of Athabasca residents bought it in 2005 and fully renovated the building, but have found they are no longer the hands-on owners they used to be.
Glenn Martin and Kevin Romanchuk are two of the owners, and they have a quickly expanding accounting business and just canít keep up with the hotel.
ìWe were all pretty active when we bought the place,î Martin said. ìItís almost a reluctant decision to sell because it has been near and dear to our hearts over the last seven years.î
Martin explained that they just couldnít devote the amount of time they would like to.
ìIt just needs more of a hands-on owner than we are able to (be) at the moment,î he said. ìItís mainly a factor of how much time we have to devote to our hotel.î
When the group of local residents purchased the hotel, they gutted the restaurant and fully renovated it.
ìI think we have improved it quite a bit,î Martin said.
ìWhen we took over, the first thing we did was renovate the restaurant.î
The building was also brought up to fire code.
ìEvery hotel room has been renovated,î he explained. ìThe carpet was changed out to laminate flooring, and we redid the staircase. It was a project that we all were pretty involved in and proud of.î
Two of the owners moved to Edmonton area several years ago, putting more pressure on the local owners to manage the building.
ìWe have been quite busy,î Martin said, explaining that all the owners have businesses of their own or work full time.
The building is listed with Royal LePage County Realty for $975,000.
