Alaska attorney general and wife buy Anchorage’s Inlet Tower hotel

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor and his wife, Jodi, recently purchased a prominent, 180-room Anchorage hotel, and have laid plans for a $6 million renovation.

The Inlet View Tower, as the couple has named the former Inlet Tower Hotel and Suites, isn’t the only multi-unit property the Taylors own.

They’re also business partners in another newly acquired 35-unit apartment complex in South Anchorage, and they own a 15-unit complex near Midtown Anchorage, Jodi Taylor said.

Treg Taylor did not agree to an interview for this story, but he and a spokesman answered some questions via email, and deferred to Jodi Taylor on others.

“My full-time job is that of attorney general,” Treg Taylor said. “Jodi’s career is property investment — she is the one who found, purchased, and manages these properties. When it comes to these properties, I’m simply Jodi’s spouse.”

Jodi Taylor said in an interview that she oversees the property investment work and the couple also employs a property management company. Her husband is not involved in day-to-day tasks, but she bounces ideas off him at night, she said.

Treg Taylor in recent months has issued public notices delegating any potential conflicts that may arise to a subordinate.

Under state ethics requirements, the attorney general is allowed to have ownership interests outside his state job, as long as he doesn’t take any official action to benefit those interests and follows other ethical requirements, former attorneys general say.

The scope of Taylor’s property investments are “a little outside the norm” for an attorney general, said Bruce Botelho, who served as attorney general under former governors Wally Hickel, a Republican elected on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket, and Tony Knowles, a Democrat.

Botelho said Taylor’s acquisition and ownership of rental properties does not on its own violate Alaska ethical statutes.

“I would say what I’d be looking out for is whether he ends up devoting any substantial time to property management,” Botelho said. “The duty of loyalty to the state as attorney general is a full time commitment.”

“The question he should be asking himself first, hopefully, is making sure that those business interests not impede his ability to do his duty full-time, as the state’s chief law enforcement officer.”

An $8.4 million mortgage for Inlet Tower

In June, the attorney general issued a public notice saying, “My spouse, Jodi Taylor, and I own several parcels of property in Alaska, and we continue to consider additional properties to invest in.” Taylor said he was delegating “all authority” to Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills for “any matter involving property in which my wife or I own an interest or are engaged in negotiations to purchase.”

In mid-August, Taylor said in another public notice that the Taylors “are contemplating a transaction” potentially involving an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board license. Taylor said he was delegating authority to Mills for any personal, pending matter before the board.

The Taylors, through their newly formed company, Beluga Point Investments IT, completed the purchase of the Inlet Tower last month, according to property records. The Taylors are listed as the sole owners of the company, business records show.

They are pursuing the transfer of a liquor license associated with the hotel, Jodi Taylor said.

Jodi Taylor declined to provide the sale price of the hotel.

The 15-story hotel is located at 13th Avenue and L Street near the New Sagaya City Market. It’s valued at $9 million for Anchorage property taxes.

The hotel was one of Anchorage’s first high-rises, built in the early 1950s as an apartment building to alleviate that era’s housing shortage, according to the book “Buildings of Alaska” by historian Alison K. Hoagland.

Still one of the tallest buildings in Alaska, the tower later became a hotel that offered long-term stays and affordable, workforce housing.

Last month, the Taylors assumed an $8.4 million mortgage on the Inlet Tower hotel from the former owner, IT LLC belonging to Bob Gross, records show.

The lender is the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. The state agency participated in the loan because its conditions require the mix of workforce and affordable housing, according to Stacy Barnes, a spokeswoman with the agency.

Plans for improvements

On Wednesday afternoon, Jodi Taylor gave a tour of the hotel to a reporter and photographer. She juggled daughter Cali in her arms, one of the family’s six children. Contractors on the 15th floor worked on new drywall.

Jodi Taylor said the couple plans $6 million in improvements, including adding a protected rooftop lounge and viewing deck for the surrounding mountains, including Denali in the distance, and Cook Inlet. An exterior elevator will be added to carry guests to the rooftop, she said.

Each unit has its own kitchen space, so the hotel will continue to offer a mix of apartments and hotel rooms, she said. The units are being upgraded with new flooring, furniture and appliances, locally created art and digital code entries.

The Inlet PubHouse restaurant will continue to operate at the hotel, she said.

A second eatery, the International House of Hot Dogs and Goodies, or IHOH, recently opened in the tower, moving from a food truck downtown.

The restaurants will be able to provide service on the rooftop deck when it’s ready, using a dumbwaiter, according to her plans.

Jodi Taylor said she studied real estate development on her own, reading every book she could, when her husband attended law school years ago. Starting around 2005, the couple owned dozens of rental units, including on the Kenai Peninsula, which were later sold, she said.

Before Treg Taylor was appointed attorney general by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in 2021, the couple purchased a 15-unit apartment complex in Anchorage’s Turnagain neighborhood that they still own, records show.

The Taylors are also business partners in a newly purchased, 35-unit apartment complex off in the Sand Lake neighborhood built in 1971, records show. It’s valued at $2 million for tax purposes.

That deal closed Friday, she said. Plans are underway to refurbish those apartments.

The couple likes creating a “place people are proud to call their home” and adding value to the city, she said.

The Alaska Landmine originally reported on the Inlet Tower purchase in a post on X, formerly Twitter, last week.

Delegating authority

Alaska’s Executive Branch Ethics Act prevents the attorney general from accepting employment outside their state position, said Jahna Lindemuth, former attorney general under independent Gov. Bill Walker. But it doesn’t restrict them from taking ownership interest in rental properties, she said.

“But the act also requires full disclosure of all financial interests held by an attorney general and his or her spouse,” Lindemuth said in a text, adding that the disclosure should be clearly stated.

“In addition, the attorney general cannot take any official action that affects his or her financial interest, and really should have a delegation in place in case any issue arises in the future,” she said.

She said the attorney general is the state’s top ethical adviser and has a high role in determining ethical violations for other state employees. The attorney general must hold themselves to the highest ethical standards, she said.

State ethics attorney Matthew Stinson did not directly respond to a request for an interview about how Treg Taylor stays within ethical boundaries.

“Any advice I’ve provided to public officers regarding the Ethics Act is confidential,” Stinson said by email. “But I can refer you to the State of Alaska’s online public notices website as the best place to go to see delegations of authority made by the attorney general.”

In addition to issuing the notices delegating his authority to avoid conflicts of interest, Treg Taylor, whose state job pays $170,000 annually, filed his latest financial disclosure forms in March. The forms show the couple’s rental businesses and rental income as being under the ownership of Jodi Taylor.

Asked if Deputy Attorney General Mills has handled any matters involving potential conflicts for Taylor, Law Department spokesman Sam Curtis said the delegations of authority were done “out of an abundance of caution.”

“Any legal advice or representation would be confidential under the attorney-client privilege,” Curtis said by email.