City of Anniston makes offer on Victoria Inn

The city of Anniston may soon be in the hotel business. Members of the City Council unanimously voted Thursday to offer to buy The Victoria Inn from the Jacksonville State University Foundation’s real estate holding company for up to $710,000 and close on the property by Oct. 1. The property containing the historic Queen Anne-style home and related buildings is appraised at $2.877 million. City Council members convened into executive session for more than a half-hour during a called meeting to discuss the offer and then publicly voted with little discussion. Mayor Vaughn Stewart said he thinks the city “can’t afford not to make this offer.” The JSU Foundation put the hotel up for sale in March 2012, less than four years after local developer Earlon McWhorter and his wife Betty donated the property to the university’s non-profit in December 2008. Currently, JSU contracts with Jackson Hospitality Services to run the hotel’s day-to-day operations. Stewart said that if the purchase goes through, that contract will likely continue. The city, he said, will put the Victoria in the stead of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, which can continue with Jackson Hospitality or another contractor its members see fit. The authority would also assume the leases for the restaurant housed at the Victoria and for the Wren’s Nest, an art gallery located on the property. The authority, Stewart said, could then gauge private-sector interest in the location.