Former Ramada Inn developer indicted on federal fraud and embezzlement charges

RICHMOND – A developer who purchased the dilapidated Ramada Inn in Petersburg with the promise to rehabilitate it only to sell it back to the city in an even more deteriorated state was indicted this week on federal embezzlement charges.

A U.S. District Court grand jury on Tuesday indicted Christopher A. Harrison on one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud, engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property and aggravated identity theft. If convicted of all charges, the 52-year-old Harrison faces a total maximum prison time of 52 years.

The charges were announced Thursday afternoon by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Case’s link to the old Ramada Inn

According to the indictments, Harrison improperly secured loans totaling almost $23 million from Iowa-based Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust to develop two projects, the Model Tobacco apartments in Richmond and the Whitaker Park community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He then reportedly set up a straw construction company and forged documents to show that the company had done work prior to those developments, then skimmed roughly $3.6 million of proceeds from the loan to pay for personal and business expenditures, including ones related to the development of the Ramada Inn in Petersburg.

Harrison is alleged to have used expenses from the Ramada Inn project to pay legal fees in his legal battle with Petersburg over the seven-year delay in his proposed plans to redevelop the high-rise hotel into luxurious living and office space. After numerous starts and stops – many of which Harrison blamed on a receding economy and inability to get funding – Harrison sold the property back to Petersburg in 2022 for $1.25 million, which was $500,000 more than he paid for it in 2015.

More: 'No ill will': Owner of Petersburg's rundown Ramada Inn talks efforts to end deal

The old hotel, which sat empty and decaying at the Washington Street interchange off Interstate 95, was demolished in 2022 as a component of the “Partnership for Petersburg” initiative started by the Youngkin administration.

As far as personal expenditures, Harrison is alleged to have made numerous purchases at luxury-goods and fashion stores, including two Rolex watches for $60,000. He also purportedly used those proceeds to pay off his mortgage, hire a residential landscaping company, and cover tuition and tutoring for his child.

No court dates have been set in the case.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Former Ramada Inn developer indicted on federal fraud and embezzlement charges