The Ridpath Hotel is in trouble again.
For months, the hotel’s sundry owners have been attempting to stop the city from officially leveling a “Do Not Occupy” order against building. Without a proper fire suppression system in the Ridpath, building officials were concerned about safety.
Now, the building’s sole tenant — Diamond Parking — has been vacated.
Stephen Antonietti says he tried to prevent this from happening. The would-be-developer of the Ridpath says he tried to corral all the owners of the vacant hotel complex to pay for the necessary repairs but couldn’t get everyone to agree.
“All of my people paid,” Antonietti says. He says he expects the city to lift the Do Not Occupy order within about two weeks, when his contractors complete repairs. He says that, actually, the city closing down the Ridpath is helping him, as he tries to work with the banks and the property’s remaining owners to purchase the building. Antonietti, with a team of unnamed investors, wants to buy pieces of the property when they go into foreclosure.
“When the city causes trouble like that, it makes the bank works faster,”
Antonietti says.
Now, he says, a foreclosure on one piece of the property is scheduled for May 4, another scheduled for June 10.
