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Gordon Sondland, the Portland hotelier who was entangled in Donald Trump’s first impeachment, has agreed to sell his mini hospitality empire, including the Heathman Hotel, to a rival chain from Texas.
Benchmark Pyramid, based in The Woodlands, said it would acquire Provenance Hotels, adding Sondland’s 12 hotels to its 240 properties in the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean. Benchmark Pyramid didn’t say how much it was paying for Provenance.
Sondland became a one-man cause célèbre in 2019 when he appeared as a witness in the U.S. Senate’s impeachment of Trump for allegedly withholding military aid from Ukraine to force President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Hunter Biden, who had business in the country.
The Senate acquitted Trump on Feb. 5, 2020. Two days later, Trump fired Sondland as ambassador to the European Union. Sondland had testified that he and Rudolph Giuliani worked at Trump’s “express direction” to arrange a deal whereby Ukraine agreed to investigate Biden in exchange for a visit to the White House.
Related: Gordon Sondland is the star witness in President Trump’s impeachment. (Scroll to end.)
Benchmark Pyramid says it plans to close the acquisition of Provenance by the end of June and that Sondland will become a member of the merged company’s board of directors.
Benchmark Pyramid is bullish on the Northwest. It owns Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge and recently assumed management of the Riverhouse, a high-end hotel in Bend.