Stalled Loftel Project Up For Auction

The aging industrial building on the corner of Porter and Orleans Streets was supposed to be one of Paul Roiff’s signature boutique hotels, complete with extended stay rooms for business travelers and a restaurant. 

However, Roiff, known for high end hotels and restaurants throughout Boston, later sold the Boston Planning and Development Agency-approved project to the Patel family for $14.75 million. 

The Patels, known for operating and managing several area hotels, planned to continue Roiff’s original vision, but for four years the project has stalled and become a dilapidated, boarded-up eyesore in the community. 

Now, after years of promising the community that they’d get working to bring the neighborhood’s first “Loftel” to fruition the plans seem to be coming to an abrupt end. 

It was revealed that Paul E. Saperstein Co., Inc Auctioneers and Appraisers have been brought in to auction off the property. 

The auction of the property will take place on April 14 at 1 p.m. 

According to the auction posting the terms of sale require a “$150,000 deposit by certified or bank cashier’s check” that will be increased to “10 percent” of the highest bid within five business days of sale”. The entire balance of the winning bid will be due within 30 days of the sale date. 

The project’s original construction loan has been allegedly called back by the lender. 

Since 2016 residents living in the Gove Street area have compared the dilapidated building on the corner of Porter and Orleans Streets to something you would see in war torn regions rather than Eastie.

In 2019, the Patels told members of the Gove Street Citizens Association that progress had been made and were eager to begin construction.

The delays in construction were largely due to the telecommunication antennas on top of the building.

The Patels were forced to enter into lengthy negotiations with the telecommunication companies to move these antennas to another part of the roof. When dealing with the relocation of telecommunication antennas there is very complicated and legal choreography that has to occur before one can move forward. Because moving these antennas causes a disruption in service there were a whole host of issues that came with that. These antennas are part of an old telecommunication easement and could not be evicted from the building because the companies own the space that occupies the building’s roof.

Another delay for the project was in relation to the Patels’s Historic Renovation Tax Credit application. Applying and receiving tax credit funding that ensures that the redevelopment of the building is done in a way that respects the property’s history and is incorporated into the hotel’s design can sometimes be a long process.

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