JWU sells Seekonk inn for $1.65M

JWU ANNOUNCED THE SALE OF the Johnson & Wales Inn to the Sarchi Group on Tuesday. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES INN
JWU ANNOUNCED THE SALE OF the Johnson & Wales Inn to the Sarchi Group on Tuesday. / COURTESY JOHNSON & WALES INN

PROVIDENCE — Johnson & Wales University has sold a Seekonk inn it owned and operated as an internship and training site for the past 30 years, the school announced Tuesday.
The Sarchi Group, which is based in Seekonk, purchased the Johnson & Wales Inn, and will operate it as the Hilltop Hotel & Conference Center effective immediately.
Sale price was $1.65 million, university spokesperson Madeline Parmenter told Providence Business News. As a condition of the sale, new management will honor all contracts for scheduled events.
Parmenter added that Johnson & Wales continues to own and operate the Radisson Hotel Providence Airport.
Johnson & Wales announced last summer it would sell the 86-room inn citing changing student demands for internship opportunities. In addition to meeting and function rooms, the property included a full-service restaurant, Audrey’s.
“As the university’s first hotel internship property, the inn, purchased in the early 1980s, has played a significant role in JWU’s history and has been an important venue to the local community,” Michael Downing, the university’s vice president of auxiliary services said in a statement.
“We are pleased that under the new management of the Sarchi Group the doors will remain open to welcome guests and host special occasions in the years ahead,” added Downing.
According to its website, The Sarchi Group owns and manages retail, mixed-use and apartment buildings as well as motels and hotels in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. The firm said it has purchased and turned around several properties by using an “aggressive marketing program.”

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