Spokane-based hotel chain Red Lion Hotels is on the receiving end of an SEC filing by Columbia Pacific Opportunity Fund, the Seattle investor group that owns 19 percent of the company's common shares.

The filing is one of a number of requests made by Columbia, which is the largest investor group owning RLH shares.

Saturday's SR and Spokesman.com will have the full story. Here is the short segment from the filing that lays out Columbia Pacific's concerns. The full letter taken from the SEC.gov site is below the text of the story.

Red Lion Hotel Corporation
To the Board of Directors,

While we are encouraged with the recent success in selling off non-strategic hotel assets with the goal of paying down debt, we are completely dissatisfied with the lack of measurable progress made toward satisfying the strategic process.  This process was announced on March 28th, and we assume the Board must have been reviewing the options in front of the company for months previously.  After five months, it is time for shareholders to learn the results of this process.   

Let it be understood that a majority of shareholders are not confident in the current Board’s ability to define a clear direction or strategy for the future of the company.  The Board’s lack of a clear or comprehensive plan to create shareholder value is evidenced by relentless shifts in strategic direction over the past several years.

Therefore, should the Board not present a proposal to sell or liquidate the company; we will call for the resignation of the current Board.  We are prepared to present a new slate of directors who have demonstrated success in hotel operating experience and value creation through real estate repositioning and capital market transactions.  While we would prefer to work with the current directors to reconstitute the Board, we are prepared to take all necessary actions to effect this outcome.

We look forward to hearing results of the strategic process soon.

---

---