Little Value, but a Big Community Issue: Remediating a Blighted, Low-value Motel and Family Home
Once a major through-road in this town, the street on which this property is located saw dwindling visitors following the construction of Interstate 5.
With low demand, many businesses in the area closed their doors, abandoning the buildings that housed them.
This motel and adjacent single-family home was no exception. The motel was severely rundown with extensive structural damage, including gaping holes in the floors, walls, and ceilings. A large accumulation of debris littered the interior, and it was covered in graffiti. The single-family home onsite had extensive plumbing and electrical issues, as well as renovations that were made without proper permits. Trash and dirt filled the interior, and the windows were either broken or missing. A large challenge we faced when trying to remediate this property was that it wasn’t worth much and so we did not have a lot of equity to work with to pursue completing construction. To proceed, we needed to find a way to make these structures safe again in the most cost-effective way.
Putting the Property in a Health and Safety Receivership Proves to be a Successful Solution to Cure this Local Nuisance
As the court-appointed receiver, we were able to utilize the assistance of a licensed contractor in our network who helped us determine that the motel was not salvageable. The structural issues were too great and there was not enough equity in the property to cover the costs of rehabilitating it, plus the demand for a motel in the area had dropped.
It became apparent that the best step forward was to demolish the dangerous building that housed the motel and look for a buyer with the ability to abate the health and safety code violations inside the single-family home.
We are currently pursuing a plan to sell the receivership property to a responsible buyer who has the capacity to repair the violations of local and state health and safety laws.
