A Canadian firm bought the downtown Orlando Crowne Plaza in May and intends to invest up to $2 million for upgrades.  The property was originally a Holiday Inn and was damaged by the hurricanes in 2004 and then converted to a condo-hotel known as The Lexington at City Place.

Work will begin immediately to add a swimming pool and up to  5,000 sf of meeting/banquet space to the hotel's nearly 6,000 square feet of meeting space.  New furniture, fixtures and equipment will be added to bring the property up to par for Crown Plaza standards.  A general contractor has yet to be named, but work is expected to begin this year and complete renovations within 12 months.  The Crowne Plaza's occupancy rate was 57 percent at the time of the sale; hotel rental rates start at about  $109. per night, the hotel's Web site showed.