MIDLAND BEACH — A Staten Island motel with a long list of violations and was destroyed by a fire is on the market for $3.5 million.
The Midland Motor Inn at 630 Midland Ave. went up for sale this month with the high price tag despite having nearly $32,000 in unpaid violations, fire damage, a stop work order, a vacate order and local opposition.
The real estate agent for the building, Sucuri Palevic, did not want to comment and the owners could not be reached.
On July 22, flames sparked by a "careless" smoker tore through the motel and damaged most of the rooms on one side. Since the fire, the Department of Buildings issued a full vacate and stop work order on the property, records show.
They also issued an order for the owners to hire an inspector and obtain a permit to start repairs by Aug. 13, but that wasn't done, a spokesman for the DOB said.
Aside from the fire damage, the building has about $32,000 in unpaid violations issued by the DOB and Environmental Control Board in 2014 for four fire safety issues, including defective sprinklers.
The motel was cited as an illegal hotel in 2014 by the DOB, records show.
The listing uses outside photos of the spot since the fire and markets it as a 44-room motel for "investors" with 24 bathrooms, a night club, hall room, office and a bar.
It went up sale for despite a push by elected officials and residents to keep the spot closed.
Last month, Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Steven Matteo wrote a letter urging the city not to let the spot re-open as a motel.
"We believe the law is clear and they should not be able to rebuild as a hotel, and we have asked the Mayor to direct his agencies to make a definitive determination on this issue so all our minds can be put at ease that this hellhole will never reopen again," Oddo wrote on Facebook in August.
Residents have also started an online group to try and keep the motel's doors shuttered.
The Midland Motor Inn has had a long list of violation and complaints of illegal activity by the community in the past decade, the Staten Island Advance reported.
In 2009, then-Councilman Oddo worked to shut down the spot after reports of bedbugs, mold, roaches and last summer police used naloxone to revive a man who overdosed inside, the Advance reported.
