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.
