Red Lion Takes On The West
We sat down with Red Lion Hotels interim CEO Jim Evans and CFO Julie Shiflett in NYC, who say the hotelier is ready to make a comeback in the Western US after spending three years cleaning up its balance sheet. (Somebody must've left the balance sheet on the bathroom floor, to let the cleaning staff know.) The Spokane-based company had a significant Pacific Northwest presence during the '80s and '90s before being bought out by Doubletree and later Hilton. After dropping to 16 franchised hotels, it plans to expand to 50 over the next year in major primary and secondary markets from Washington to Texas, including San Francisco. (Those are plenty of cities to watch their favorite football teams play in away games: Julie's an avid Washington State Cougars fan, while Jim follows Notre Dame. Not to be outdone, Red Lion's general counsel used to play for Santa Clara.) We'll have more on Red Lion in Friday's Bisnow Hotel Sheet.
