TRENTON – The city’s long-shuttered hotel may finally be getting new owners soon enough if city officials can work out a contract rub.
The council voted Thursday night to begin the process of foreclosing on the Lafayette Park Hotel & Suites, which has faced a string of well-documented financial and management issues over the years.
The hotel hasn’t reopened since state officials shut it down in fall 2017, citing more than 100 safety violations.
It was the second time that year the hotel was forced to close due to safety concerns that went unaddressed by owner Deepak Viswanath.
The stick is the city doesn’t have attorneys in place to initiate the foreclosure proceeding on the dormant hotel, which has turned into a hang-out spot for squatters, city officials said.
Council President Kathy McBride, exercising her veto power, removed approval of the $250,000 contract for the law firm of Goldenberg, Mackler, Sayegh, Mintz, Pfeffer, Bonchi & Gill, which has handled most of the city’s foreclosures, Mayor Reed Gusciora told The Trentonian in a phone interview Friday.
The firm specializes in commercial litigation and has valuable experience in those matters that members of the city law department lack, law director John Morelli said.
City officials hope to meet with and lobby council members to support the contract before bringing it back before the governing body for approval.
McBride, who was absent from Thursday’s meeting, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment about her decision to remove the contract from the agenda.
The council president’s veto power has been a recurring issue that has landed the administration and council members in court, as Gusciora has accused McBride of not following an ordinance requiring removed dockets items to be restored to the next meeting’s agenda.
Aside from the political wrangling, the future of Trenton’s lone downtown hotel remains murky.
The 197-room hotel has had a long string of financial issues that predated new ownership, and those struggles continued after Edison Broadcasting purchased it at auction for $6 million in November 2013.
In 2017, after waiting until the 11th-hour to pay back taxes, Edison came through with nearly $1.2 million and another $33,000 for owed sewer and water charges to settle outstanding tax liens and avert foreclosure.
Mooring Tax Asset Group had purchased the tax sale certificate for the hotel for $985,897 and placed a lien on the property. Mooring continued paying the hotel’s quarterly taxes, which is why the figure ballooned to $1.2 million.
The city currently holds a tax lien on the property totaling more than $190,000, according to the tax office.
Since the hotel shut its doors, Viswanath, who could not be reached for comment, has reportedly sought to sell the property for between $8 and $17 million, Gusciora said.
The steep asking price hasn’t attracted serious offers. And officials said a reverter provision that was included as part of the initial project allows the state to retain partial ownership of the property if new ownership doesn’t operate the building as a hotel.
That complicates the city’s ability to attract redevelopers if and when the city forecloses on the hotel, Gusciora said.
