By Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
The Prince Downtown Motel was sold at a foreclosure auction on Friday to Padmavati, the company which holds the mortgage on the property.
Padmavati – whose registered agent Bhadresh Shah is the former owner of the motel at 410 Carthage St. – purchased the property for what it was owed on the mortgage, or $814,744.97.
As a condition of the sale, the building will need to be torn down “in a reasonable amount of time at (owners) expense,” thanks to a nuisance complaint from the city of Sanford that was filed in 2022. The hotel, which has been the source of complaints about crime including drug sales, prostitution, and even murder, has been permanently closed since 2023.
The sale is not final, however. The closing of the foreclosure auction on Friday triggered a 10-day upset bid period, which resets each time a new bid is placed. No new bids had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, Jonathan Silverman, the attorney for current owners Paresh and Amita Naik, told The Rant that the Naiks have already filed an appeal of the foreclosure sale itself, as well as an appeal of the bond amount of $16,000 which Silverman says “is higher than statute allows.” Silverman also said the Naiks plan to file suit against Shah and Padmavati for “being deceptive in selling this business that turned out to be a not very good business, and for trying to profit off that sale.”
“The city ought to pay my clients fair market value for this property,” Silverman said. “It’s a corner lot in a commercial area.”
The appeal of the foreclosure sale and the bond amount will be heard on February 26.
It’s hilarious to me that anyone is acting like they were duped. Did the used needles, prostitutes, and cockroaches make you think it was a nice place? Poor you for being so deceived. Get real. Instead of investing back into this “commerical area corner lot” property this company let it soak in the fetid drug use which it found profitable enough. Now they want to be bailed out/bought out by the city at a fair market value? You chose to be slumlords and now you want a commerical property buy out? HA HA HA HA HA HA
Blackrock, Vanguard or State Street will be more than happy to buy that property at 40% more than it’s value.
It should be torn down , it has been a eye sore way too long !
Replace it with a Target!
People still there at night.
Owner’s file Bankruptcy will stop everything till you sort it out ten days you have after the sale date Chapter 13 it’s under $1 million owed if it’s over $1 million then chapter 11.