Two affiliated Spokane hotel companies have sought protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.


One of those companies, JG-DR LLC, owns and operates a 70-room Comfort Inn & Suites at 2730 N. Madson, at the Liberty Lake Center development in Liberty Lake. The other, Red-Mat LLC, owns and operates a 61-room Microtel Inn & Suites, at 1215 S. Garfield, at the Airway Business Centre in Airway Heights.


JG-DR developed the Comfort Inn in 2001, and Red-Mat opened the Microtel a year earlier. Both hotels remain open.


Court documents say the principals and management for both JG-DR and Red-Mat are the same, as are the secured and unsecured creditors. Consequently, the two companies have requested that the court consolidate the two bankruptcy filings into one case.


Neither Donald R. Redding, part-owner of the two companies who is named as the authorized representative in the proceedings, nor John D. Munding, a Spokane attorney representing the companies, could be reached for comment.


The two companies total assets and liabilities werent listed in court documents yet, but the two companies each have assets and liabilities estimated to be between $1 million and $10 million.


The only listed secured creditor for both companies is Old Standard Life Insurance Co., a unit of Spokane-based Metropolitan Financial Group of Cos. Redding said in an affidavit filed with the court that Old Standards alleged secured indebtedness against JG-DR and Red-Mat are about $2.5 million and $2 million, respectively.


Old Standard filed suit against JG-DR and Red-Mat last November for money claimed owed, but those cases should fall under the bankruptcy courts purview now, Munding argues in court documents.


Unsecured creditors include the Internal Revenue Service and Washington state Department of Revenue, among several others.


The two hotel properties owned by JG-DR and Red-Mat currently are being marketed for salethe Comfort Inn for $3.6 million and the Microtel for $2.7 million, Redding said in the affidavit. He also said in the affidavit that the companies intend to sell the properties to maximize value for creditors and investors.