Loan amount increased for motel purchase
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview park
Published April 29, 2009

The county will likely loan the city more money to complete the purchase and demolition of the Country Inn Motel, Development Director Jim Kennedy said.

In February, Cuyahoga County Commissioners approved the city’s request for a $292,000 loan from the county’s Commercial Redevelopment Fund. Earlier this month, city officials met with the loan committee of the county’s Department of Development to request more money to handle environmental remediation of the property, located at 20520 Lorain Road.

The loan committee approved loaning the city an additional $46,900 on April 8. The three county commissioners will vote on the increased loan at their May 7 meeting.

“I don’t anticipate there being a problem,” Kennedy said of getting the commissioners’ approval.

Of the new loan figure of $338,900, $203,900 is going to purchase the property from Krishnakant and Hansa Thakkar. A total of $135,000 will pay for demolition of the motel structure, environmental remediation and associated legal costs, Kennedy said.

The additional money is needed, Kennedy said, to handle environmental work associated with the demolition of the building. The actual costs were unknowable until the purchase agreement was finalized and more detailed studies were completed, he said.

Thirty percent of the loan will be forgiven under the terms of the loan. The city expects to recoup the purchase price by selling the property at a later date.

City officials want the Country Inn Motel property to be part of a larger 11.88-acre development they are backing along Lorain Road. The proposed development would be built on the north side of Lorain Road from the old Garnett school site at West 208th Street ending before P. J.’s Day Spa at West 204th Street, Mayor Eileen Patton has said.

The project would include a mixture of retail, high-end residential housing and up to 100,000 square feet of office space, Kennedy said.

Ironwood Development Company, based in Fairview Park, will be responsible for completing the project, city officials said.

City officials hope that the former Board of Education offices and adjacent Garnett School site, located at the corner of Lorain and West 208th Street, will also be included in the development.

State law dictates that the first attempt to sell public school property must be through a public auction. However, the district reserves the right to reject a bid.

The proposed project can also be completed without school district’s property, the mayor has said.