By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Once a crown jewel of Hays, the Hays Ambassador Hotel & Conference Center, 3603 Vine, has been sold and is set to be razed by the end of the year, replaced by lots for commercial development.
The property has been purchased by Werth and Jennings LLC, made up of local owners Andy Werth and Emery Jennings.
Werth is owner of Andy’s Mud Co., 719 E. 12th, and Jennings works as a real estate broker and co-owner of Rural American Realty Co., 1900 E. 25th.
“Its been purchased by Andy Werth and myself. We’re partners on this project,” Jennings told Hays Post.
Both parties have longtime connections with Hays.
“Andy is a lifelong Hays resident and owns several commercial properties in town,” Jennings said. “I have lived in Hays for about seven years.”
While the hotel is still open for business and is expected to remain open until the sale completes on Dec. 1, work is expected to begin on the property shortly after.
Demolition will be completed by a local contractor.
The demolition of the property will open at least four commercial lots for development, which will then be sold to individual owners.
“We believe that that’s the best commercial lots for sale between Topeka and Denver,” Jennings said.
The commercial development could be a boon for Hays, as land on Vine has been sparse for large commercial development.
“We’re excited about this,” said Aaron White, executive director for the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development.
“From an economic development standpoint, we’ve been getting a lot of inquires in the community from businesses that are interested in purchasing a location,” White said, “particularly restaurants.”
“They want to own property. They want to own the ground they’re on. They want to build their own facility based on their corporate requirements, and there’s little to no property available currently on the Vine Street corridor,” he said. “There’s a lot of property for lease in Hays, but not a lot for sale.”
Developing within the city is also attractive to the developers as no new services will need run to move new business onto the 5.4 acres of land that will become available after the hotel’s demolition.
“The utilities are already there, that’s why we bought it,” Jennings. “There won’t be a lot of hoops to jump through.”
“It’s got a good opportunity to bring in some restaurants that have been looking at the community of Hays, some of them for two years or more,” White said.
While White couldn’t name interested parties, he said several are already looking into building on the land.
“We working and looking forward to have a successful project on it,” Jennings said.
The road to here
While the development of the land is exciting for the interested parties and the city of Hays, many are likely to remember the grandeur of the facility in its heyday and are likely going to feel hints of nostalgia to see it demolished — but in its current state there are few other options.
“They’ve had a lot of troubles out there,” Jennings said.
The property has been through several owners through the years, and has begun to show its age after the current owner, Joshua Joseph, did little to rehabilitate the hotel after its purchase and online reviews since his purchase and renaming have been generally unfavorable.
Joseph owns several hotels through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, under a long list of LLCs, generally similar in structure to the Hays Ambassador Inn — many former Holiday Inn or Ramada convention centers with reviewers at many of the locations finding the hotels to be in disrepair.
City of Hays officials have publicly commented on the poor condition of the facility, going so far as to request bids for redevelopment of the property several years ago.
The closest hotel under Joseph’s ownership is the Atrium Hotel and Conference Center in Hutchinson.
Joseph is currently recovering after being shot in front of the Biltmore Hotel, one of his hotels located in Oklahoma City.
Still many are sure to remember the hotel’s former glory.
“It’s a landmark in Hays as far as I’m concerned,” Jennings said. “Years ago, it was the place to go and the place to be.”
Hotel management declined to comment.
