David Benda
Redding Record Searchlight
Published 11:00 AM EST Nov 16, 2019
A blighted, empty downtown motel and a vacant big-box retail building could be infused with new ownership.
A court-appointed receiver was tasked this past summer with selling the shuttered Redding Inn on Pine Street. The motel closed more than three years ago, weeks after the business settled a civil lawsuit with Shasta County.
Meanwhile, the old Shopko on Lake Boulevard is headed to auction after efforts to sell the empty building failed.
‘An experienced developer’
Empty since the spring of 2016, the Redding Inn has a buyer.
“I know that escrow has opened and there are some title issues involved that need to be resolved and then the standard inspections have to go forward before the buyer is comfortable,” Redding attorney Aaron Moore told me.
Moore represents Craig and Patricia Burkett of Redding, who in January 2017 sold the Redding Inn to a Southern California group. Representing the group, Vijay Soni told local media at the time they planned to spend $600,000 to get the two-story motel in shape for a Days Inn, adding that he had a commitment from the chain to operate there.
Days Inn officials have repeatedly said a hotel at the former Redding Inn address was never in the plans.
Two months after Soni’s media gathering, the Burketts learned that Amrit Gill, whose name was on the new deed, claimed that her identity had been stolen and she did not sign the property documents, per a complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court.
The Burketts sued for breach of contract and sought to undo the deal and to transfer the property, alleging the sale was made under fraudulent terms.
Joshua Johnson of Venture Properties is brokering the deal to sell the Redding Inn property. He declined to identify the would-be buyer. However, he said that if the sale happens, the property would not remain a motel.
“It’s an experienced developer that has plans to work with the city and do some kind of mixed-use that would have commercial and residential,” Johnson told me.
Right now, the buyer is doing due diligence on the property to see if the plans would pencil financially.
It’s reminiscent of the former Americana Lodge, which also was placed in receivership. A Chico developer wanted to buy the motel and turn a portion of it into student housing, but walked away after determining the cost to do that would be prohibitive. The Americana was later sold to a local developer, who gave it a face-lift and rechristened it last spring as the Americana Modern Hotel.
Redding attorney K. Thomas Smith Jr. is the receiver for the Redding Inn.
Smith said he did not have authority to discuss the case, but he noted that progress is being made.
The sale would not affect the lawsuit.
“The idea was that perhaps the parties would be able to come to the table easier if we had a definite amount that we were arguing over,” Moore said of putting the Redding Inn into receivership to sell the property.
A trial-setting conference for the lawsuit is scheduled for early December. It’s not known if the former motel property will be sold by then.
‘Construction costs through the roof’
In May, Shopko closed after nearly 30 years in the North Point Plaza shopping center on Lake Boulevard.
Before that, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and in late June, its nearly 60-year run ended when the last stores closed their doors, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported.
Redding was Shopko’s only location in California.
Not too long after the store closed here, Blair Wheatley of Cushman & Wakefield, the commercial realtor listing the empty building, was optimistic about selling the space.
That didn’t happen.
And on Monday, the building is scheduled to be auctioned off on the steps of the Shasta County Courthouse. The foreclosure auction is set for 11 a.m.
Debt owed on the building is approximately $4.5 million, according to the notice of trustee sale. The building sold in August 2016 for $13.6 million.
Wheatley told me it’s simple why the building hasn’t sold: Nobody would pay what “the seller needed to get.”
I asked Wheatley, given the current retail landscape in Redding, what he thinks the building is worth.
“I don’t know because it’s really tough because nobody out there is willing to take the entire space,” he said. “It has to be split up, and that’s the problem. Construction costs are through the roof to split it up.”
The 94,200-square-foot building is among several large, vacant retail spaces in Redding:
- Raley’s in the Cobblestone Shopping Center on Hartnell Avenue closed in April 2014 and that building remains empty. Raley’s had anchored the strip mall there since 1984.
- Discount retailer BI-MORE Spend Less closed in 2010. The store on East Cypress Avenue, between Carl’s Jr. and Rite Aid, for years was a Meek’s Hardware store before BI-MORE.
- OfficeMax on Churn Creek Road, next to Barnes & Nobles, closed in 2017. The building in recent years has temporarily housed a Halloween costume store.
- Kmart on Hilltop Drive is still empty after closing in April 2018, but there are plans to repurpose the building and the strip mall in which it sits. Plans submitted to the city say the center would be rebranded Cascade Station and include the existing Ross Dress For Less and 99 Cents Only Store and the former Kmart, which would be divided into a 61,730-square-foot space, a 35,091-square-foot space and a 9,170-square-foot space.
With the amount of empty retail space and new retail under construction in Redding, it’s easy to see why the old Shopko building has languished since the store closed last spring.
Stay tuned.
That empty restaurant building on Miracle Mile
A “For Sale” sign has popped up in front of the blighted former restaurant building at the corner of North Market Street and Benton Drive in Redding.
Realtor Corey Middleton, who’s listing the property, said the asking price is $425,000, which he said includes three lots: the restaurant, the parking lot to the west and a portion of the hillside behind the building.
“It looks a little beat up on the outside, but inside it has been redone, new electrical, new walk-in (freezer),” he said, adding the stucco building has a new roof.
It has sat empty since the Italian restaurant Catanio’s closed a dozen years ago. Casa Ramos occupied the spot before it moved to Hilltop Drive. And going further back, it was another Mexican restaurant, El Papagayo.
Ramos Holdings LLC owns the building, which up until now couldn’t be sold because the estate was locked in a legal battle that prevented it from selling, Middleton said.
The lawsuit has been “expunged” and the estate can now sell the building, he said.
A phone message left at Casa Ramos’ corporate office was not returned on Friday afternoon.
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David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
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