Goodale & Barbieri name reborn

Red Lion Hotels Corp. is spinning off its real estate management division.

The re-established business will bear a familiar name: Goodale & Barbieri Co.

In a deal expected to be finalized in late April, an undisclosed amount of stock will be given to Red Lion in exchange for private ownership of the real estate division. It’s one of several assets that the corporation has recently sold, including the Crescent Court building and the Ridpath Hotel.

Becoming a private company will enable Goodale & Barbieri Co. to focus primarily on real estate management, sales and development, said Tom Barbieri, who will become president of the company that his father, Louis Barbieri, started in 1937.

Tom Barbieri will share ownership of the real estate company with David Peterson, who will serve as vice president.

“Sometimes it was cumbersome for the real estate division to be part of this big, huge public company,” Barbieri said.

Selling the division will enable the corporation to more narrowly focus on its core hotel business, Arthur Coffey, president and CEO of Red Lion Hotel Corp., said in a news release.

When the deal is finalized, Barbieri said the company will immediately have projects with a total value of more than $30 million in the works. Goodale & Barbieri will develop and manage seven office, retail, residential and recreational properties in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, although the company isn’t disclosing details. The partners may also individually invest in some projects, he said.

The real estate division currently employs more than 100 people, Barbieri said, and the employees are expected to retain their jobs with the new company.

The business currently manages projects with more than 1.7 million square feet of office and retail space and more than 2,000 housing units. It will continue managing Red Lion Hotels’ office and retail real estate assets that include Lincoln Plaza in Spokane and the Kalispell Center in Montana.

Barbieri, 48, has worked for the family business (which went from private to public ownership) since 1979. Peterson, 52, has spent 29 years with the company and the two men have worked together in real estate for the past 13 years.

“My father was his mentor,” Barbieri said. “David has stories about my dad and the things he taught him.”