Fresh Loaf

Yes, the Clermont Hotel, which was put up for sale in April for $6.5 million, is now in foreclosure. And, yes, that puts the future of the fabled Clermont Lounge in doubt. It’s doubly a shame when one considers that the five-story (but definitely not five star) hotel had finally achieved enough of a landmark status that it has attracted interest from local restaurateurs and retailers.

As John Huston’s character says in Chinatown: “Of course I’m respectable. I’m old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”

According to listing agent Gene Kansas, several well-known restaurant owners have inquired about the space and the owners of Octane coffee bar were eyeing the building for a second location. He says he’s got a signed letter of intent from uber-hip Ace Hotel, a Portland-based company that operates — under someone else’s ownership — hotels in the Northeast, California and Manhattan.

That’s quite a turnaround from the days, not that long ago, when the Clermont Hotel was regarded as a low-rent flophouse for transients and hookers.

My friend Paul Donsky with the AJC reports that the building is scheduled to be sold on the courthouse steps July 2, but that the lender, New York-based Fairway Capital, says it’s working with the owner, Jeff Notrica of Inman Park Properties, to resolve the matter before that happens.

Sadly, I have my doubts.

A cursory investigation of public records shows that Inman Park Properties has defaulted on loans for well over a dozen intown parcels, many of which contain familiar and historic buildings in the East Atlanta Village, Virginia-Highland and Midtown. Most of these have already been taken over by various banks.

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UPDATE: This might NOT be the coolest contest ever, because the Clermont is facing foreclosure. More to come. Stay tuned!

Atlanta’s favorite den of iniquity is calling “all designers, architects, students, creative geniuses, butlers, bell boys, photographers, tourists, bartenders, dancers and engineers” to try their hand at redesigning the iconic Clermont Hotel.

But it’s not the hotel’s infamous basement lounge — where boobs obliterate beer cans and strippers strut their sometimes sagging stuff — that needs a makeover. No way.

Rather, it’s the hotel’s lobby, rooftop and guestrooms that are dying for a new look. (And, in the case of the rooms, a new set of sheets.) The real estate brokerage firm that’s attempting to sell the hotel — while preserving the lounge, of course — is offering $1,000 (rad), a weekend at the Clermont (sorta rad, as long as you bring your own linens, air freshener and earplugs) and a year’s supply of Whynatte energy drink (a seemingly unappealing but reportedly tasty latte in a can) to the winning design.

Second prize is somewhat less desirable: a PBR tall boy and a lap dance.

According to the submission form:

Candidates are requested to submit design concepts that visually convey the re-birth of The Clermont Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The Clermont Hotel is a long standing icon just to the east of Midtown Atlanta and home to the nationally renowned Clermont Lounge which opened in 1965. Submissions should capture the uniqueness and funkiness the Clermont is known for. … Candidates are encouraged to work within perspective views (supplied on web site) and provide a concept statement.

The deadline for entries is July 22. Might I suggest this for inspiration?

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Yes, you read correctly: The fabled Clermont Motor Hotel is up for sale for only the second time in more than a half-century. The seven-story, 130-room hotel has been owned since 2003 by Atlanta’s Inman Park Properties, which bought it from the Loudermilk family. The Loudermilks had operated the Clermont since the ’50s and, the last I heard, still manage the property.

Inman Park Properties has done little to change the hotel, except to lower the rates from $50 to about $35 (that’s nightly, not hourly, wise guy). As company president Jeff Notrica promised when he bought the hotel, the notorious Clermont Lounge has been left untouched. A few Clermont-philes were briefly spooked last year when the company advertised for investment partners to help pay for renovations. But based on the fact that IPP is now trying to unload the hotel, I’m guessing a partner never materialized.

It seemed odd to me that the company, which deals in commercial real estate, is not the listing agent for the Clermont, so I called said agent, Gene Kansas, to see what’s going on. Kansas says he’s been hired to find a buyer who’s a good fit for the hotel — and who’ll not want to meddle with Blondie’s downstairs demimonde.

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