Will the Prince remain a pauper?

• Position: Reopening of Prince Charles Hotel in North Carolina

Few of the grand downtown hotels built in the '20s and '30s have survived in North Carolina, but a group of Fayetteville investors still think there's life in the old Prince Charles Hotel.

Once the social center of Fayetteville, the 68-year-old Prince Charles has been on the slide since the late 1960s. Back then, Hay Street was at its rowdiest, and the hotel was convenient for prostitutes who worked the adjacent bars.

The hotel closed in 1979, and it soon became a home for vagrants and pigeons. Then, in an effort to revive downtown, the city secured a $2.6 million federal grant and helped finance a $7 million renovation of the 105-room hotel by developer John Nagel and his two partners, plumbing-supply company owner J.J. Barnes and lawyer Gardner Altman, in 1989. The elaborate improvements included custom-made furniture such as bed headboards with "PC" carved on them. But with occupancy running less than 30%, the hotel closed within a year. The investors filed for bankruptcy protection, the government was out millions of dollars, and a group of banks led by Southern National took possession.

But where others saw a boon-doggle, Fayetteville neurosurgeon Menno Pennink saw a bargain. He organized a 35-member...