April 30–The decaying Prince Charles Hotel is to be auctioned next month, but without the land around it.
The hotel is scheduled for auction May 30, while the two tracts of property around it have been separately listed for sale.
An Oklahoma auction firm, Williams and Williams, will stage the sale at the dilapidated downtown landmark at 4:30 p.m. that Friday, with bids also taken simultaneously online. The minimum bid is $200,000.
The two adjoining tracts have been listed with Grant Murray Real Estate, a Fayetteville commercial brokerage firm. The larger tract, between Maiden Lane and Hay Street, is 2 acres and listed at $2.1 million. The smaller tract mostly fronts Hay Street and includes the broken stone fountain. It’s just under half an acre and is listed for $675,000.
The city has been agitating for the auction to satisfy a $77,000 judgment that was part of a bankruptcy settlement with the corporation set up by developer John Chen to own the downtown property. The city’s motion to reopen the bankruptcy case was to be heard in federal court Tuesday, but with the auction scheduled it was removed from the calendar.
Rob Fields, Chen’s Raleigh-based attorney, said work continues on forming a viable plan for the properties.
“We remain hopeful that these plans will come together,” Fields said via email. ” The auction just emerged as the best way to move those plans forward on a suitable timetable and in a way which seeks to avoid further disputes.”
Chen bought the hotel and surrounding property in 2010. His redevelopment plans went nowhere and the city closed the hotel in 2010 because of numerous fire code violations. David Levinson, developer of the Anderson Creek Club in Harnett County, announced pans to renovate the property in partnership with Chen in 2013, but backed out when the city declined to split the cost of fixing damage done by vandals since the building was closed.
“It’s about time,” said Clarence Briggs, who owns Advanced Internet Technologies, which occupies the building next to the Prince Charles on Hay Street. Briggs is among the prospective buyers.
“We’re going to register,” he said Wednesday.
Fields said there is interest in the sale.
“The opening bid has been set low enough and interest appears high enough that a ‘no sale’ auction is unlikely,” he said.
The hotel will be opened for public inspection from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 9 and May 23, as well as for two hours before the auction, according to the company’s website.
Briggs said some of his employees filed reports with the city that they had seen people coming and going from the hotel, before and during the Dogwood Festival.
Police Chief Harold Medlock said officers checked the hotel Wednesday and found nothing.
“”It’s completely secure,” he said. “No signs of entry at all.”
Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at phillipsg@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.
