Home » From The Readers, Letters to the Editor » Sedona Village of Oak Creek Element Hotel for Sale

Sedona AZ – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor:

Attention Sedona residents,

“Glacier House Hotels, owners of the Element in the Village of Oak Creek, has primarily its hotels in the Western and Southwestern up for sale, approximately 15 hotels at this writing. Eight, including the Element, are under construction and can be acquired at certificate of occupancy. The owner is prepared to accept offers individually, with the exception of the Best Western and Matterhorn which must be purchased together. Berkadia Hotels and Hospitality are the exclusive representative for owner Glacier House Hotels. The 15 hotels can be acquired individually or in sub-pools.”

I received the above in a blind copy group email and it lists an information link of http://glacierhouse.berkadiarea.com and there is no way the Element isn’t going to be completed is what I’ve learned. I’m hoping that given its monstrous size and zoning variances, the Village can petition that it was built for speculation and not with true intent, but merely as a money maker for the owner to flip. Doesn’t this violate our resident’s rights? At the very least we can stop the monstrous signage! (A resident in Sedona called it a developers Pump and Dump and others call it flipping.)

Since I saw the Element information first here, I’m sending this to alert other readers and residents and visitors. We need to stop any more hotels in the Village as this proves the speculation of need was manufactured to allow this scourge of our red rock views and limited desert water. We have LIMITED WATER!

Did county Supervisors know this? Big Park know? What residents knew? This company owns the Best Western and the Matterhorn and just who are the people behind the scenes of that sale? We should know. We should know who is profiting off our willingness to offer zoning variances! What Marriott and Hilton and associations are there to the Sedona properties? The Berkadia website says its a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group. It lists four (5) addresses in five cities (Washington DC, Miami, Phoenix, Chicago, LA) for Berkadia Hotels and Hospitality.

Please keep my name from publishing as I don’t want work or personal repercussions. There are community websites with the same information and lots of discussions by residents in place.

To the idiots commenting about politics, this has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism and everything to do with red rock cheap access. It has to do with Sedona business and Sedona developers and the fact that Sedona elected a city council twice that in my opinion caters to both. And they’re all Democrats and some have avowed socialism while marketing and promoting traffic for tourism on city council. Don’t blame Republicans and or capitalism policies for the demise of our once beautiful and serene city. The socialists and Democrats in my opinion have undermined the very soul of Sedona, have stolen its serenity in daylight and our dark skies. Where have all the good Democrats gone?

Thank you for being a beacon of light in Sedona. Let’s hope we’re all wrong but I think we’ve lost precious red rocks and views in the Element construction project. Enough is enough.

(Name withheld)

Village of Oak Creek homeowner

Sedona AZ