Nov. 18--STOCKTON -- The former Sheraton Hotel in downtown Stockton is to become part of Vantage Hospitality Group's Lexington Collection, officials said Monday, months after Sheraton first demanded that the hotel stop using its name.

Lexington has 12 hotels in the United States and five in China, Lexington spokeswoman Melissa Scott said. Vantage, of Coral Springs, Fla., also owns the America's Best Value Inn brand.

Stockton's $62 million hotel,said hotel Vice President Jeroen Gerrese, will be renamed the Lexington Plaza Waterfront Hotel.

The hotel has been financially distressed since it opened last year. Its owner, Regent Hotel LLC, failed in a sour economy to sell condominiums atop the hotel, and contractors said they were unpaid.

The project's primary lender, First Bank of Missouri, foreclosed on Regent, and the hotel went into receivership. Regent claimed the bank unfairly withheld part of its $40 million construction loan.

Despite that, Gerrese said the hotel has been an operational success and expects revenue growth next year.

"We're very happy with where we are under very difficult circumstances," he said.

Gerrese said brand changes are common. He said Lexington is an emerging brand eager to put marketing and other resources behind the hotel. No staffing or operational changes are planned, he said.

Scott said the Lexington brand affords its hotels greater flexibility than do larger brands.

"We educate, not mandate, what you can do with your properties," Scott said.

She described Lexington as including "more of the upper-mid to mid-upscale, like three- to four-diamond properties."

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. A message left on a Starwood media hot line was not returned.

Nor were calls to Regent or to the court-appointed receiver, Steven Speier.

Sheraton has demanded at least since July that the hotel remove references to the Sheraton from its property. In an Oct. 14 letter included in a court file, Keith Klein, an attorney for Sheraton, said "even if there are not sufficient funds available to remove signage, plastic can be placed over the signage, on a temporary basis, with very little effort."

Gerrese said the Sheraton name would be removed from the hotel's facade this week. The time taken to remove references to the brand is not unusual, he said.

The Stockton hotel is the second Sheraton to announce a switch to the Lexington brand, Scott said. A Sheraton in the Lansing, Mich., area is to become a Lexington next year, she said.

Lexington has hotels in Houston; Williamsburg, Va.; and Jackson, Wyo., among other cities.

Contact reporter David Siders at (209) 943-8580 or dsiders@recordnet.com.

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