Company lays off 49 employees at 2 Butler, Warren county hotels

A family owned developer and operator is laying off 49 employees at two hotels in Butler and Warren counties.

In a letter received Monday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services’ Dislocated Worker Unit (Rapid Response Unit), Wisconsin-based Raymond Management Company said the layoffs would affect 20 of its employees at AC by Marriott Hotel, 7505 Gibson St., Liberty Twp., and 29 of its employees at Hilton Garden Inn, 5200 Natorp Blvd., Deerfield Twp.

The AC by Marriott location is owned by Liberty Center Lodging Associates, and the Hilton Garden Inn location is owned by Apple Ten Hospitality Group.

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Raymond Management Company said it informed 31 employees in Liberty Twp. and 35 employees in Deerfield Twp. that they were being temporarily laid off due to an “unprecedented drop in occupancy on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“At the time, we believed that we would be able to recall the employees back to work within six months of the above date,” said human resources manager Mindy Statz. “We continued to provide health care benefits to the employees during this period of time.”

Statz said RMC recently concluded that due to continuing issues and concerns with the pandemic, occupancy at the hotels have not returned to the degree needed to bring employees back to their previous positions.

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Both hotels remains in operation with a reduced staff, she said.

Since the coronavirus crisis started, hotel owners say they are struggling to get relief on a type of loan that Wall Street investors buy. These commercial mortgage-backed securities loans are packaged in the form of bonds with the loans on properties such as hotels serving as collateral.

Since the coronavirus halted most travel, many hotel owners have had to lay off workers and they’ve been unable to make monthly payments on their loans. Hotel owners say that unlike banks that are negotiating with them, the servicers for the CMBS loans, also known as Conduit loans, have been next to impossible to reach for help.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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