Denton’s only remaining full-service hotel could be in jeopardy.

Holiday Inn, which opened in Denton 14 months ago, is on this month’s foreclosure list and could be sold at auction June 3, according to information released Friday by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc.

The hotel’s owners and managers said they are simply refinancing their debt and they expect the hotel will come off the list before the scheduled auction day.

“That’s simply not true. The hotel is not going to be sold,” said Marshall Tullos, general manager of the hotel. “We just had a record month; everything is rocking and rolling.”

He said the hotel has been, on average, 80 percent full.

Gaylord Hall of Lone Oak Holdings LP, which owns the hotel, said the refinancing should be worked out in the next week.

The property is appraised at $10 million, according to the preliminary tax roll the Denton Central Appraisal District released last week.

Bonnie Brown, who is with the Foreclosure Listing Service, said the Holiday Inn also was listed for auction in April.

The only two reasons a property would be on the foreclosure list are because the owner is delinquent on the mortgage payment or because of a technical problem, she said.

She said she did not know the details of the Holiday Inn’s situation, but its appearance on a list of foreclosed properties is cause for concern, especially because it’s the second time.

“I do have a concern about any commercial property that is posted for foreclosure less than a year after the loan,” Brown said.

The listing service reported the hotel’s investors borrowed $12.85 million in July, she said.

But just because a property is listed doesn’t mean it will be sold at auction, she added. More than half of the properties listed for foreclosure this year have not gone to the auction block and have been worked out another way.

Commercial foreclosure postings for the first half of the year in Denton County have shown an 80 percent increase, the listing service reported. Land foreclosures topped the list with a 517 percent increase. Six lots were put up for foreclosure in the first half of 2007, compared with 37 in the first half of this year. Miscellaneous building foreclosure postings came in second with a 50 percent increase from 14 in 2007 to 21 in 2008.

Showing decreases were retail centers, office buildings and apartments.

A total of 63 commercial foreclosure postings were filed for the first half of 2008, up from the 35 commercial foreclosure postings filed in the first half of 2007.

Construction on the Holiday Inn began in July 2005. It opened in March 2007. The four-story hotel includes Lone Oak Bar & Grill, a conference area, which can be separated into three meeting rooms, and a boardroom meeting area. 

The Holiday Inn is Denton’s only remaining hotel with conference rooms and dining services since the Radisson hotel is set to close within a week.

The University of North Texas agreed with Radisson owners in March to end their partnership of more than 20 years. UNT hired an interim management company in April and plans to close the hotel for good June 1.

UNT leaders have said that having a full-service hotel near campus is important.

To organize the closing, UNT hired Milton “Pat” Howell as a consultant. Howell served as associate vice president for facilities at the university from 2001 until his retirement in 2005.

Howell said the university is still weighing what to do with the old hotel building, but it is not interested in buying the Holiday Inn because “it is outside the range of our master plan.”

Howell said that when the university closes the old Radisson, it plans to leave the utilities on and keep a security force so the building will stay in good shape.

He said UNT leaders are still considering whether to remodel the existing building, expand it or tear it down.

“I just can’t give a definite answer on that,” he said. “We’re still exploring all our options.”

Staff writer Dawn Cobb contributed to this report.

MATTHEW ZABEL can be reached at 940-566-6884. His e-mail address is mzabel@dentonrc.com.