It looks like the Avalon Hotel down in the John's Landing section of Portland has been bought out of bankrputcy by a familiar group -- apparently, the same outfit that's managing it now. At least, that's the best heads or tails I can make out of this press release. It says the proud new owner is "Grand Heritage Hotels, a Portland-based hotel ownership/management group." And that's who appears to have been running the place previously -- at least according to this story from 18 months ago. (Grand Heritage also runs the Governor Hotel in downtown Portland.) In the fall of 2003, this source (scroll way down) identified the then-new owner as "a private group led by Paul Brenneke."

Anyhow, I have never understood that place. It was supposed to be a big draw for rich Japanese businesspeople, but by the time it opened there weren't as many of those as there had been before. The dot-com bust hit at just about the same time, I think. It bombed.

Maybe the new/old ownership/management will make a better go of it once the SoWhat district gets up and running in a year or so. After riding up and down on the you-know-what, the tourists can come back to the hotel for a good laugh and a nice massage.