The Red Lion Hotel on Midland Rd. on the West End of Billings just off the King Avenue West Interstate exit unexpectedly closed its doors this week, with doors locked and no staff inside as of the morning of the 11th. No one from any department of the hotel was answering calls, be it the hotel itself or the Wild Horse Grill restaurant within.
Over the summer, the Florida-based business who owns Red Lion Hotels Corporation, Inner Circle Investments, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida under the name 5500 Midland Land, which operates the seven-story, 300+ room hotel at 5500 Midland Rd. They listed their assets somewhere between $10 million and $50 million but listed liabilities between $50 million and $100 million, according to documents from the court. Inner Circle bought the hotel at auction in 2015 for $7.85 million and rebranded it last year from Holiday Inn Grand to a Red Lion Hotel. Red Lion Hotels Corporation announced a third quarter loss of $3.5 million last week and shortly after, on the 8th, the CEO resigned.
