Courtesy Muroff Hospitality Group
By Christine Graf
Country Cottages & Motel in Diamond Point has been sold to Country Cabins LLC for $2,750,000.
Sellers Ceaser (Charlie) and Virginia Portes enlisted Mitch Muroff of Muroff Hospitality Group to handle the sale. The real estate firm specializes in the brokerage and sale of hotels, motels, resorts, campgrounds and inns throughout New England and New York state.
The transaction closed on Dec. 28, just over two months after the property was listed for sale.
“The Country Cottages is an extremely well-built property,” said Muroff. “When Charlie and Ginny Portes acquired the property 30 years ago, there was a three-bedroom log cabin on the property and not much else. He and his father built each of the cabins by hand by themselves over the course of the last 30 years.”
The 3.38-property has 17 private one-, two-, and three-bedroom fully winterized cottages, four motel rooms, and a 3,600-square-foot private residence that was owner occupied by the Portes.
There is also a heated swimming pool, children’s play area, fitness center, and veranda.
“As it turns out, the buyer of the Country Cottages & Motel is the individual who I sold Lake George Suites to in June,” said Muroff. “The properties are very close to each other—probably a quarter or a third of a mile away from each other.”
The buyer, an executive from Long Island, has already made investments to improve the Lake George Suites property, which includes a marina with 17 slips and three moorings.
Muroff said it is likely the new owners will make additional investments at Country Cottages and that both properties will share management staff. Although the owner is a new player in the local hospitality industry, he has been vacationing in Lake George for many years and is a boating enthusiast.
Muroff also sold another local resort, the Flamingo Resort on Lake George, at the end of November. In addition to having 59 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, that resort has 17 docks as well as five charter boat licenses.
“There’s a great deal of interest in Lake George and other drive-to resort locations,” he said. “COVID was a factor in curtailing travel abroad and to other parts of the country where people have to get on a plane to go on a vacation.”
“The desire to vacation in more local, friendly, safe environments like Lake George and the Adirondacks have hastened the interest of opportunistic investors from throughout the northeast. Lake George is a hot market, especially desirable are lakefront properties,” he said.
Muroff Hospitality is seeing similar demand in the other markets they serve including the Berkshires and Southern Maine. The opposite is true in cities where larger franchise hotels depend on conferences and corporate functions for revenue.
“I don’t see that improving in the next year or two,” said Muroff.
Although he has several properties in and around Lake George Village that are currently listed for sale, Muroff is seeking additional inventory.
“I have a shortage of inventory and a great deal of interested prospective buyers,” he said.
For more information on his real estate group, visitmuroffhospitality.com