Maybe the motel really is haunted.
Time after time, Flagler County government has battled with owners of the derelict Country Hearth Inn on Old Dixie Highway to get it repaired, or at least to move it past the eyesore and nuisance stage to something less unattractive–and less attractive to vandals and mischief. Time after time, the owners have fallen short of meeting benchmarks.
Ready to demolish the building itself, the county sued. It has now filed what amounts to a renewed lawsuit just months after it appeared the motel was on its way to being rehabilitated and the county on its way to resolving a chronic problem.
When new owners, David Shebeiro and Manny Gomez, bought the motel in May for $650,000, more than double the $300,000 the previous owners (Amjal and Zubair Zulali) had paid for it in 2017, county officials were hopeful. At the time of purchase, “the Property consisted of an unsecured and abandoned motel with large amounts of refuse, overgrown vegetation, and vegetative debris throughout the premises,” court papers state. “The property also contained an unsecured and partially filled swimming pool containing green stagnant water.”
The sheriff going back toi February 2020 had written the thn-county administrator about his concerns. “It is becoming an attractive problem location for criminal activity and ‘haunted buildings’ hunters,” Sheriff Rick Staly had written. “I have personally patrolled this property and it is fast becoming a ‘Broken Windows’ situation. In addition, because it is at the county line this abandoned hotel makes it more attractive for criminal activity because of minimal law enforcement activity available.”
The county worked with the new owners, who named their company 2251 South Old Dixie–after the address of the motel–to accommodate new deadlines. For a while it looked as if there was substantial progress. The new owners filled in the swimming pool, removed broken glass, emptied rooms of furniture and chain-linked the property, in accordance with county conditions. Problems remained, including missing second-floor railings, roof problems and gaping, uncovered windows. By Aug. 20, the company was expected, in line with its agreement with the county, to have completed plumbing, mechanical, electrical and framing work on the motel. If not, it would have to pay $250,000 as security for the abatement of public health and building code violations.
“The Agreement specifies not only the benchmarks required to abate the nuisance conditions on the Property, such as addressing litter, pool closure and perimeter security, but also the benchmarks for returning the structure to a productive, non-blighted use, thereby ending the cyclical nature of the conditions creating the nuisance,” the county’s lawsuit states. The agreement also called for the reconstruction of the hotel once the new owners had passed all “rough” inspections regarding structural issues.
The new owners missed more benchmarks, and in mid-August sheriff’s deputies carried out three arrests, including a juvenile, at the property. (The two adults pleaded out to counts of burglary and criminal mischief and were sentenced in September to 18 months on probation. The judge withheld adjudication, thus sparing them being branded felons.)
On Oct. 1, the county served notice to the new owners that the $250,000 was due. Days later, County Administrator Heidi Petito, the assistant county attorney and representatives of the new owners were at the motel, reviewing plans in what seemed like movement forward. “We understand there’s delays in materials, there’s delays in subcontractors, but as long as we see forward progress, we’re OK,” Petito said at the time.
But it proved to be not enough movement. On Nov. 2, the county again served notice that the $250,000 was due. There was no response, “except to request a reduction of the contracted amount, which the County Commission declined to accept,” the amended lawsuit states. On Nov. 24, the county filed that amendment, citing breach of contract. The amendment also asks the court to grant an injunction on the owners to address the problems, or else allow the county to demolish the building. The amendment calls on the new owners to pay attorneys’ costs–and all costs of demolition, if it comes to that.
Put another way, the county’s stalemate over the Old Dixie motel property is back where it was before May. The owners have not provided an answer to the complaint. The case is before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, no hearing has been scheduled yet. The amended complaint is below.
Amended Complaint, Flagler County v. 2251 South Old Dixie:
Click to access dixie-highway.pdf
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Jane Gentile-Youd says
No hearing has been scheduled because Al Hadeed too busy farming out tons of money to his co-counsel to bother to set the original and now amended Complaint for hearing. Here’s some free legal advice from a non attorney. Do your job – take all your legal notice of violations and legal notice of county legally able to demolish this dangerous infested eyesore and FILE for a SUMMARY JUDGMENT once and for all to knock the place down.
In addition to ignoring legal warnings as well as more than one ‘plea’ from Sheriff Staly they continue to clog the court with Complaints never once set for hearing which is how the system works! Judges don’t sit and pick and chose what cases they are going to hear and make decisions on – it’s the PARTIES – Plaintiffs and Defendants job to ASK the judge to listen to their pleadings.
The worst part of all is the fact that Mr. Hadeed is taking the money owed to his pal outside co-attorney, from the County Building Fund and not his $800,000 Legal Fund.
But the saddest part of all is that nothing will be done until there is real serious accident on that property and the county ( we taxpayers ) get sued, or Al Hadeed is fired in my unqualified personal opinion.
Denali says
Never have I seen such inefficiency in local government. In many years as both a local building official and state fire marshal I ordered and obtained the demolition of 14 unsafe buildings. In our state the minimum time required from my order to the start of demolition was 9 months; this included waiting time between the order, notifications, various hearings, public comment and the bidding period. The longest I ever had to wait was 11 months from my initial order for the demo crew to start their work. After reviewing the Florida statutes covering unsafe buildings I find it remarkable that this building and the nuisance it represents has been allowed to remain standing for this length of time.
Once again, we taxpayers of Flagler County must ask “Who is in Who’s pocket?”
Gina Weiss says
Jane Gentile Youd: I must give credit where credit is due, you were right about this eyesore, enough of the posturing with this DUMP, they should knock it down and start new, it sounds like it’s beyond repair at this point and it needs big money people to come in to breathe new life and fresh air on this gem of a property.
Pogo says
@To Whom It May Concern
Like I said:
@Fresh floriduh produce
According to corporationwiki, “2251 S Old Dixie Hwy LLC filed as a Florida Limited Liability in the State of Florida on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 and is less than one month old, according to public records filed with Florida Department of State.”
Then brer Shebeiro signs an agreement on the 13th of May; and the checks roll in on the 24th. By Jove, good show.
Again, according to corporationwiki, “Known Addresses for 2251 S Old Dixie Hwy LLC” are, “12550 Biscayne Blvd North Miami, FL 33181” According to the intertubes, corporationwiki, and Google, 12550 Biscayne Blvd North Miami, FL 33181 is a nine story office building which hosts, or has hosted, 687 floriduh corporations. Well, okay then – a popular place.
And the number of the “silent partners”? God only knows.
“Landlords grow rich in their sleep.”
— John Stuart Mill
https://flaglerlive.com/163765/old-dixie-motel/
Mr Beaneater says
Probably attorneys or accountants doing the filing. Registered Agent.
We pull Sunbiz records daily. On average there are over 2,000 new companies, orgs or trusts created in Florida every day. You read that correct. 2,000 A DAY. And that’s just Florida.
So when you guys hear these scary figures about the number of “businesses” that fail in America every year, keep in mind that an overwhelming vast majority exist only to move money around so as to avoid taxes. A shell game.
Pogo says
@Mr Beaneater
Thank you, and that was my point too; “@Fresh floriduh produce” was entirely intentional:
https://www.google.com/search?q=fresh+produce+and+money+laundering
“You can’t cheat an honest man…”
In the country of the blind a one-eyed man is king. Anyone met a king lately?
And so it goes.
https://www.google.com/search?q=money+laundering
A.j says
Thank you, I learned something today.
Gina Weiss says
Flagler Live: I want to say Thank you for this article and your continued up to date information about this project in the works, NOT! My thoughts are such: Are any of these so called developers properly vetted before our county sells property/land to them? I see alot of them coming from Orlando or Miami. Seems to me that those places are red flags of what many of us do not want here. And what’s with all of the rezoning of land and developers not sticking to original plans building apartment complexes in the middle of reseves and single family homes. How much due diligence can a prospective home buyer do if the rules are going to be changed at any given time? This is all very unfair to us taxpayers and residents are getting to the point where I see on social media many of them saying that this place sucks because of such poor amateur planning of our infrastructure. I have been to meetings where Chimento has made attempts to blindside the public with his IDK answers to important questions asked by concerned citizens, why even have the meeting, when a lawyer responds IDK in my head translates we are f**ked! Yes I was at that Bulow Creek meeting at the FCBOCC when he make his appearence as if he was Mick Jagger walking onto a yacht as he attempted to blindside people with a clause from his briefs. But the Bulow Creek people were smarter than he along with their own lawyer. Kudos to them.
Greg says
Maybe the county should buy this unwanted property and add it to their list of “white elephants” they have bought, that can’t be used. This would fit right in with their noted property purchases. Maybe Staley could build another sheriffs out post there?
Cynthia says
The new owners should have been required to demolish it in the first place. With as long as it has been sitting unoccupied with no maintenance, they should’ve realized there was no way to fix it up to meet required standards. The county needs to take care of this!
C’mon man says
Turn it into a restaurant/strip club. Bring some local palm coast hotties in to work and serve customers traveling.
GM says
Being the GM at a prominent hotel in Palm Coast and being very familiar with the market from Daytona to St. Augustine, even if this property were to be renovated, would it even make it financially? Ok, maybe they would make decent money for Daytona 500 and Bike Week, but after that, where would the revenue come from? Especially with a new hotel coming to Flagler Beach.
PDE says
There is also a hurricane Matthew-destroyed house in the 6900 block of North Oceanshore Blvd. in the Hammock just south of Surf Club 3. The house needs to be torn down. I’ve made numerous phone calls to the Palm Coast Building Code Enforcement Dept. but have gotten nowhere. The Building Code Dept. tells me that the owner of the property is using his lawyers to delay the legal process in regards to rebuilding or demolishing the house in question. THIS HAS GONE ON FOR MORE THAN ONE YEAR since I first made contact with the Building Code Dept. They told me last year that if the owner continued to drag his feet that the county would tear down the house, but again there’s been no action regarding this. Not sure if the legal process is the same for this house compared to the Motel in question, but so far the outcome has been the same.
Land of no turn signals says says
Probably has less mold than the last 2 the tax payers got screwed purchasing.