POSTED: Thursday, January 17, 2013 --- 8:50 a.m.

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) -- The downtown Appleton Radisson Paper Valley Hotel has been sold for nearly $18 million.

The hotel went into a court-ordered receivership last year after Watermark Hotel Investors defaulted on a $27 million balloon payment. A Miami-based real estate investment firm, LNR Partners, has purchased the hotel.

The Radisson is at the center of a planned $25 million exhibition center in Appleton. The group that wants to build the center has been waiting for the ownership issue to be resolved. Fox Cities Exhibition Center leader Walt Rugland says LNR will eventually sell the hotel, whether it's now or in two or three years.

The Post-Crescent says 2012 hotel revenue was about $14 million -- its best year since 2006.

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Information from: The Post-Crescent, http://www.postcrescent.com

Copyright 2013: Associated Press