ORONO, Maine — The owners of University Inn Academic Suites announced Wednesday they have purchased the Black Bear Inn Conference Center and Suites.
The purchase, completed within days of the University of Maine’s Homecoming Weekend, allows the two Orono properties to work together to provide independent lodging and conference services for visitors to UMaine and the larger community, said Tracey Whitten, who now owns both properties along with her husband, Guy Whitten.
Tracey Whitten said the real estate closing took place earlier in the day.
“It was fast and furious,” she said, adding that Katahdin Savings Bank staffers worked in overdrive over the past several weeks to help get the deal finalized because she needed this fall’s revenues from her new property, at 4 Godfrey Drive, to get through its first winter.
She did not disclose the purchase price, but Orono Assessor Rick Sands said the Black Bear Inn is valued at $2,410,500 for taxation purposes.
The Whittens purchased the University Motor Inn, at 5 College Ave., in 2001 and immediately changed the name to University Inn Academic Suites. Over the next 13 years, the property underwent extensive renovations inside and out.
Whitten said she was inspired to get into the hospitality business by hotel mogul Tom Walsh, founder of Ocean Properties Ltd., in 1988, while she was working at the Regency in Bar Harbor. At that time, she launched her long-term plan to someday own her own hotel chain.
Whitten said Wednesday she started with nothing and worked full time while attending Husson College, now Husson University, where she graduated salutatorian with an accounting degree. She went on to obtain her CPA credentials while working for Coopers & Lybrand in Portland, studying various business models and companies. One of her clients brought her back to the Bangor area, where she worked as a controller and chief financial officer for Alternative Energy.
When Whitten decided to purchase her first property, it was only fitting that it was one of Walsh’s first properties, which he built with Larry Mahaney in 1962, she said.
The Black Bear Inn Conference Center and Suites is the product of a 1990 partnership between Danny and Carla Lafayette of Lafayette Hotels and the Sargent construction family, Whitten noted.
“The Lafayettes and the Whittens share similar business philosophies and styles, so the acquisition was a natural fit,” she said. “The independent presentation and legacy of the property were very important to the sellers, in terms of supporting the University of Maine and local community.”
Lafayette Hotels did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Whitten said she and her husband look forward to bringing their energy and vision to the Black Bear Inn by committing to outstanding hospitality with a family-run, independent style.
“I don’t have any special plans to change anything,” she said.
However, she did say one of her immediate goals is to build up the Black Bear Inn’s food and beverage arm, noting the facility’s conference center can accommodate 700 people.
“I’m really going to focus on that aspect and what it should be and could be,” she said. “I need to find a really good partner.”