Two years after getting $200,000 in upgrades, a well-known Holiday Inn in Sunset Hills is millions behind on a bank loan and operating under a court-appointed receiver.

Eagle Bank went to court this month to ask a judge to approve its choice of Innkeeper Hospitality Services LLC to take over operation of the Inn Southwest/Viking Conference Center at Lindbergh and Interstate 44. Thea Sherry, a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge, complied.

The bank says in court documents that Viking Lodge and Restaurant Inc., and hotel owner Chris Kreutz owe $9 million on a loan. It adds that Kreutz has reported that the hotel lacks the money to meet its payroll.

In 2007, Holiday Inn embarked on a $1 billion global makeover with new room furnishings, a new lobby design and its first new logo since the chain began in Memphis in 1952. The Southwest/Viking was among the first St. Louis-area Holiday Inns to participate in the makeover.

Kreutz said for a Post-Dispatch story in 2009 that he spent $200,000 "refreshing" the hotel. He said then that refurbishing hotels during the recession, which was over the horizon when the makeovers began, was a smart countercyclical move. His family has owned the Southwest/Viking since 1972.