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Red Lion items to be auctioned off

Offerings can be viewed Friday at hotel

By Gordon Oliver, Columbian Business Editor
Published: November 5, 2015, 5:02pm
2 Photos
Randy Ehli of Ehli Auctions is liquidating items from the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay, which closed at the end of October. The Red Lion chain will hand over keys to the property on Nov. 13 to the Port of Vancouver, which owns the Terminal 1 site it sits on. The port is considering redevelopment options for the site. Items being auctioned online are on display today at the hotel.
Randy Ehli of Ehli Auctions is liquidating items from the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay, which closed at the end of October. The Red Lion chain will hand over keys to the property on Nov. 13 to the Port of Vancouver, which owns the Terminal 1 site it sits on. The port is considering redevelopment options for the site. Items being auctioned online are on display today at the hotel. (Natalie Behring/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

With the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay now part of the city’s past, the business is busily emptying the building as it prepares to hand over the keys to the property’s owner, the Port of Vancouver, on Nov. 13.

The first step in that process is an auction that will clear the building of its furnishings and decor. An online action is now underway at CyberAuctions.com, which offers a complete list of items for sale to those who register on the site. The auction closes Nov. 9.

The hotel’s contents are being sold by the room, with the exception of more than 120 Samsung flat-screen TVs. Also up for grabs are lobby décor, ice machines, fitness equipment and numerous small items.

Items offered for auction can be inspected Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Red Lion at the Quay, 100 Columbia St. But don’t expect to see some of the water-themed wall decorations and other unique objects that were familiar to countless hotel and lounge visitors. The Red Lion has kept those items for its own use.

Randy Ehli, owner of Ehli Auctions in Tacoma and the liquidator managing the Red Lion auction, said he expects that the auction will draw bids from operators of small hotels. But anyone is welcome to take a look and bid on items that might be practical or memorable, he said.

The Red Lion donated more than 100 mattresses to Love INC of Cowlitz County to be given to low-income people and to shelters. “They were so wonderful to give us these things,” said Cindy Stahl, the nonprofit’s clearinghouse coordinator.

Eighteen volunteers picked up the queen pillow-top mattresses from the hotel on Wednesday and delivered 25 of them to Vancouver-based Giving Closet, a nonprofit providing clothing, food and household items to those in need. Although Love INC doesn’t normally serve people outside of Cowlitz County, it had received a request to help out the Giving Closet, Stahl said. A handful of mattresses were delivered Thursday to people who need them.

The hotel’s final day of operation was Oct. 31. The next step in the transition at Terminal 1 now falls to the Port of Vancouver, which must secure the property as it considers its next move for redevelopment of the key waterfront site. The port is in the midst of a planning process for that property, which adjoins the larger downtown waterfront redevelopment site to the west. It has long expressed an interest in attracting a replacement hotel, either a Red Lion or another brand, for the waterfront property.

“The Terminal 1 property is a key element to the port’s waterfront project,” the port said in a statement Thursday. “We have been coordinating with the Red Lion throughout this process to ensure the security of the property. Port staff are working hard to protect this public asset and make sure the property remains secure until plans for the site are finalized.”


Reporter Patty Hastings contributed to this story.

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Columbian Business Editor