Inn at National Hall Closes

The Inn at National Hall closed its doors today, according to inn manager Marco Degl'Innocenti.

"The owners have decided to shut down," he said of Antares NH LLC, a Stamford real estate firm that purchased the hotel in 2006. Antares said today it would not comment on the inn's future at this time.

The opulent hotel occupies all but the ground floor and is one of five buildings in the town's Historic Design District Zone, located at Post Road West and Wilton Road. In addition to the hotel, Antares purchased three other buildings in the historic district in 2006. The company has suffered severe financial problems as a result of the worldwide downturn in real estate values.

In December, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a zoning change at the request of real estate investment company Greenfield Partners of Norwalk that would have permitted office space on the first floor. In January, the Representative Town Meeting overturned the P&Z decision, which then led to concerns by some commissioners over the RTM's review process and a potential lawsuit that the commission ultimately voted not to pursue.

Greenfield had requested the zoning change to create enough space in National Hall to use it as its headquarters. At the January RTM meeting, a lawyer representing Greenfield, Lawrence P. Weisman of the Hartford law firm Halloran & Sage, said the four buildings were supposed to be sold to a group of investors and Greenfield was to become a tenant in National Hall. Weisman  told the RTM then that the sale would not proceed if the zoning change did not remain in effect. The four buildings were valued at $17 million, according to information presented to the RTM.

It's unclear if Greenfield Partners or the investors, whom Weisman had declined to name, are still under contract to purchase the buildings. When reached by phone last week, Weisman said he "did not want to talk about it." A woman answering the phone at Greenfield Partners said "the company doesn't usually talk to the media.".

Inn manager Marco Degl'Innocenti said he doesn't know what will happen to the building.

"My guess is they'll come in on Monday, shut off the lights and lock the door," he said. "It's a little sad because this is a very special property — the setup, the decor, the effort that was put into this place. ... We were on the cover of the June '94 Architectural Digest."

Degl'Innocenti said all the wood inside the hotel was hand carved and every room was painted by a different artist.

As far as a new owner, Degl'Innocenti said the hotel "needs an owner interested in being an innkeeper."

"It's hard for any kind of large corporation to make this work," he said. "It's more about being into our lifestyle — directly involved with the guests, the town and the property. It's not just a spreadsheet at the end of the month."

Built in 1873 and transformed into a luxury hotel in 1993, The Inn at National Hall was selected for inclusion in The National Register of Historic places in 1994, just one year after its opening.  The Inn has earned the coveted AAA 4-diamond award since 2001, according to its Web site.

Degl'Innocenti began working for the inn in 1997 and is one of 13 employees there. While he's not sure what his employees will do next, he said he is moving on to manage the Southport Delamar hotel, which is scheduled to open in April. It is a sister hotel to the Greenwich Harbor Delamar.