Troubled Staten Island property barred from reopening as a hotel

A controversial Staten Island hotel that had problems with bedbugs, roaches and mold before a fire destroyed it in July 2015 will not get to reopen as a hotel.

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo said that the Midland Motor Inn, a former hotel at 630 Midland Avenue, can no longer be a transient hotel since it has not operated as one since July 2015, meaning it is now subject to city zoning laws that prevent it from being used as lodging, according to DNAinfo.

Property owner Kanti Patel said he submitted plans to rebuild two times after the fire, but the city rejected both of them. However, he still intends to file for a third time soon and will consider turning the space into a single-room occupancy residence if he gets rejected again. He estimated the cost of rebuilding would be $600,000.

The hotel went on the market for $3.5 million in October 2015, but Patel said he could not find a buyer because there was too much uncertainty over whether the city would allow rebuilding.

Oddo had spent years trying to shut down the troubled hotel and was thrilled that he finally succeeded.

“For far too long, like Jason Voorhees in the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies, it stubbornly refused to die,” he said, according to DNAinfo, “but now since its operation was discontinued for so long it is dead.” [DNAinfo] – Eddie Small