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The oldest hotel in the city comes with 24 rooms, more than 17,000 square feet — and a few friendly ghosts, according to employees and local lore.

“Uhm, that’s a long time period and energy is neither created nor destroyed but simply transformed into one matter, into the next,� said Lee Day, the assistant general manager, who has his own stories. “So you can’t tell me there’s not something locked away within the walls.�

We’ll get back to that.

Owner Andy Zimmerman, a developer by trade, couldn’t say much about the future of the boutique hotel last week.

“Not much to say right now other than it’s under contract,� Zimmerman said.

As a commodity, the 111 W. Washington St. hotel is the “perfect investment opportunity,� according to its listing on the online commercial real estate website . It is in an approved state Opportunity Zone, which comes with tax benefits. Although elegant in its current state, according to the listing, “the potential is there to create upscale apartment living in the heart of Greensboro. “ Rooms now go for about $129 a night, with suites $149.

Callers sometimes confuse it with that other Biltmore property.

“Every day,� Day said of the calls, which don’t seem to bother him. “Generally, they’re asking ‘When does the big house open?’, or ‘What time are we able to get in the big house?’ and we have to remind them that we are a 24-room hotel in the middle of downtown Greensboro — ‘And were you looking for the Biltmore Estate in Asheville? ‘ And then proceed to give them the 800-number.�

It’s unclear what that potential buyer has in store for this Biltmore.

“It’s been everything from office spaces to apartments to rooms to rent,� Day said of the building, with a bridal shop next door. “The post office at one time.�

Even a rumored brothel.

The 24 rooms in the “charming Victorian-style� hotel, with four guest suites and four efficiency units are “all enhanced to take you back to simpler times,� reads the listing.

The building, believed to have been constructed as far back as 1895, is within walking distance of restaurants, breweries, shopping and entertainment with an Amtrak station and Interstates 85 and 40 close by. Past guests include visitors to the city for the colleges and N.C. A&T’s homecoming, the Tanger Performing Arts Center, which is just blocks away, and downtown festivals. Day knows of guests who had hopped on a train for adventure and landed in Greensboro, with the Biltmore the first hotel they came across.

And then there are the other guests who supposedly never bother with a reservation.

Day, who has been with the hotel for much of the last decade, hasn’t seen the little boy that is said to roam, but the youngster is a frequent visitor at The Biltmore Hotel.

“I started here on third shift, and one day I was walking through the building like we’re supposed to, and went downstairs and heard someone running and giggling,� Day said.

He went to the reservation books to see which room would have had a child. There were none.

“I called my manager in the middle of the night and said, ‘Why do I hear giggling?’ and that’s when he told me the story,� Day said.

Turns out, the boy’s parents aren’t around. Haven’t been for, like, decades.

Day doesn’t know why the boy continues to come back but wonders if the land the hotel sits on might have been his playground. And whether he died in childhood.

The boy isn’t the only ghost said to visit the hotel, which Day will confirm with his own experiences.

A pink room is dedicated to a lady of the evening, who came to her end after falling down the stairs. Some tell of a warm presence in a bed or the scent of floral perfume.

Lore is that another ghost, an accountant named Phillip Mullen, was thrown out a window after uncovering a crime at the firm once housed on the block. Guests have reported the smell of cigars coming from where his office had been.

An obituary from the time period said the accountant died in another state. But that hasn’t slowed a good story.

At least, according to lore, the buyers are getting friendly ghosts.