Bloglander

As Stephen Antonietti rushes to untangle complications in order to make an offer on the four Ridpath buildings, there's yet another pressure encouraging him to be quick about it: There are now other parties gunning for the Halliday building.

The crux of his plan for the Ridpath Hotel was always his vision for the Halliday, the empty building to the Ridpath tower’s east. There, he plans to add multiple stories, with a nightclub, a ballroom, restaurants and a rooftop venue.

The Halliday’s entertainment venue, he hopes, would draw the guests needed to fill up the other hotel rooms.

Except, now he has competition.

With only one owner, the Halliday was always the simplest to buy — and thus, the simplest to sell.

But lately, Montana real estate investor Michael Maddy, the sole owner of the Halliday, says more parties than just Antonietti have expressed interest.

“Recently we’ve had some other inquirers, so I called Steve up and said, ‘Soon you have to go forward or we have to look at other options,” Maddy says.

Since Antonietti has been “square with him from day one,” Maddy says he’s not in the business of shopping offers. He says he’s been open with him.  But “we would like to move forward.”

Antonietti says he's just waiting for the paperwork to go through on his offer. He'd hoped it would have been done today, but, true to the hotel's track record, things haven't gone as planned. The alarm went off twice last week — and not because of intruders. These alarms were set off because of water from leaks in the roof. 

Both real estate developer Ron Wells and Ridpath part-owner Greg Jeffreys (who’s been entangled in several cases accusing him of fraud) have said they have plans for the Ridpath buildings, but Maddy doesn’t know exactly who is behind the new inquiries. So far, the other parties have been going through their realtors, who haven’t revealed their client.

But as of yet, Maddy says, nobody has made an offer. “If somebody made me a cash offer today, the first I would do is go to Steve,” he says.