Allegria Resort sold at auction for $27.4 million | Herald Community Newspapers

After years of money setbacks and two Chapter 11 filings, the Allegria Lodge, which opened to terrific fanfare in 2009 — the 1st upscale lodge to open in Prolonged Seashore in a long time — was bought at a personal bankruptcy auction on Tuesday for $27.4 million.

The winning bid was submitted by the hotel’s house loan loan company, Stabilis Funds Management LP, a Manhattan financial commitment organization. Stabilis is a successor to Brooklyn Federal Price savings Lender, the original mortgage loan service provider, which held a $38 million be aware on the Allegria assets.

In February, Stabilis sued to foreclose on the lodge, indicating that the home loan be aware experienced turn into due in 2014, alongside one another with interest and other charges. Stabilis claimed it was owed $31.7 million additionally desire and fees, in accordance to court docket paperwork.

The pending sale is issue to court docket approval — scheduled for July 26 in U.S. Individual bankruptcy Court docket for the Southern District of New York — though the deal is not expected to be finalized until finally the slide, according to men and women with know-how of the auction who declined to be discovered.

“Stabilis is enthusiastic to have won the bid and is passionate about this property,” the firm said in a assertion. “We believe that strongly in the potential of the Allegria Lodge and, if the [bankruptcy] trustee approves the sale procedure, we glance forward to building money enhancements and other investments in the house. We plan to set up the Allegria as a definitely major-notch boutique hotel.”

The hotel’s former proprietor, Allen Rosenberg, purchased the King David Manor property, at 80 W. Broadway, for $21 million in August 2007.

Operated by Alrose Allegria LLC, the posh 143-room, 124,000-sq.-foot oceanfront lodge filed for Chapter 11 security past calendar year in U.S. Individual bankruptcy Courtroom. Court docket documents present that the lodge has money owed totaling $39.1 million, and the home is valued at the auction sale price tag, $27.4 million.

Final calendar year marked the second time in four several years that the Allegria had filed for individual bankruptcy, just after the Point out Office of Taxation and Finance slapped seizure notices on a 3rd of the hotel’s rooms mainly because it owed $6 million in back taxes.

Tuesday’s bidding commenced at $24 million — all future bidders experienced to existing $2 million financial institution checks — and the sale was totally free of any monetary liens.

The auction, executed by Central Islip-centered Maltz Auctions, took position in the hotel’s rooftop lounge and attracted a combine of probable prospective buyers, developers, enterprise entrepreneurs and community citizens. A complete of 9 bids were submitted.

In April, Highgate Administration took in excess of functions at the lodge, and has “implemented and is continuing to introduce countless upgrades/modifications to increase security, effectiveness and profitability,” the agency claimed in a statement in June.

“I’m confident that it’s going to be ongoing as a hotel, and the present-day administration is going to remain on,” Ken Silverman, a Chapter 11 working trustee appointed by the court docket, reported of the lodge and Stabilis soon after the auction. “I imagine [Stabilis has] practical experience in the hospitality field.”

Silverman emphasized that all weddings and other situations would get area as scheduled, and that the resort was accepting new party bookings and resort reservations. “The lodge is heading to keep on to run, and we’re honoring all situations and we’re still heading to be scheduling,” he explained. “And the summer season season has been impressive so far — [the hotel has] possibly been considerably or fully occupied.”

If the new proprietor decides to adjust the use of the setting up, it would call for acceptance by the town.

“While the individual bankruptcy approach is not beneath the city’s regulate, we are hopeful that the assets will carry on to be made use of as a hotel, which is in the city’s financial curiosity,” Town Supervisor Jack Schnirman said.

Amongst all those who attended the auction had been reps of the Engel Burman Group, which owns an adjacent vacant home, but President Jan Burman explained to a reporter that his improvement company did not bid on the lodge. Likely consumers involved a business that owns catering and lodge qualities, and some others who had hoped for a likelihood to snatch the Allegria for a deal.

“We required to see what the quantities had been,” said Sam Djonovic, a previous restaurant supervisor at the Allegria who now co-owns S&H Consulting, a restaurant consulting business in Hicksville. “We believed it was a fireplace sale.”

Between the economic climate, Hurricane Sandy and bad administration choices, Djonovic and his company lover, Jonathan Nieves, reported the Allegria has experienced its share of missteps given that it opened. “They set a large amount of their finances into setting up it,” Djonovic explained. “You’re a boutique resort on the seashore — how could you are unsuccessful?”

In an interview with the Herald in 2012, Rosenberg reported that after the economy tanked in 2008, development of the hotel went in excess of funds by approximately $25 million, and construction delays resulted in a late opening in the slide of 2009.

The hotel’s monetary issues experienced long been general public know-how, nevertheless things appeared to take a optimistic change in 2012, prior to Sandy. Alrose initial submitted for Chapter 11 protection in July 2011, declaring $10 million to $50 million in liabilities to more than 50 creditors, but a year later, a U.S. Individual bankruptcy Court decide approved a reorganization plan letting Alrose to spend off or restructure its money owed.

Nieves, a previous banquet supervisor at the lodge, stated that a new operator could most likely switch matters all around. “Right now they’re working as a management enterprise,” he stated. “If the proprietor arrives in and does the proper issue, this spot can essentially be a place that Extended Seashore has by no means had in advance of. But if they carry on to do what they’ve been carrying out, more than time, it is just likely to be the exact same detail.”