Downtowner may be sold next month

Residents at a downtown motel could be forced to leave if it is foreclosed and sold at an auction next month.

The 34-room Downtowner Motor Inn could be sold Jan. 8 to collect more than $100,000 Ralph Ahmad owes the DiMartino family on the mortgage for the business, said Frank DiMartino of Carson City.

Ahmad lost his business license in November for failing to pay room taxes. He has owned the motel at North Carson and Washington streets since 1998. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Frank DiMartino said his family planned to auction the property Tuesday, but they delayed the sale after Ahmad filed for temporary protection from creditors Dec. 3 under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

According to his federal bankruptcy filing, Ahmad valued the Downtowner at $870,000.

David Shearer is now running the Downtowner under a business license he got this month. He has said he will enforce a city code that would allow visitors to stay no more than 28 days.

Long-term residents are the majority of visitors at the Downtowner. They would have to leave by the end of the month if the code is enforced.

Gina Jones, who has been at the motel about a year, said she's trying to find a new place to live. But many apartments are unaffordable, she said, and require better credit than most residents at the Downtowner have.

Ahmad also owes the city about $30,000 in property and water taxes, Treasurer Al Kramer said.

The city could foreclose on the motel next month to collect the money, Kramer said, but the DiMartino family will pay the taxes as part of its auction of the property.

The taxes are also collecting interest for the city in the meantime, Kramer said.

"That's the best performing part of my portfolio," he said. "I'm happy to wait."

- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.