ORLANDO, Fla. — Three Orlando hotels owned by Nik Patel, who's accused of federal loan fraud, hit the auction block Monday.
The hotels are the former Sheraton in downtown Orlando along with properties located near Disney and the University of Central Florida.
Channel 9's Michael Lopardi asked how a sale of the downtown hotel could impact nearby businesses. It's been fenced off and out of business for more than a year, but real estate experts said the local hotel market is strong and there appears to be a lot of interest in the property.
Plans to renovate the 290-room former Sheraton were never completed. The property closed in 2014, and nearby restaurants felt the pain.
Photos: Hotels up for auction
"At least do something with it because right now, it's a waste of space," said Norman Poon, a manager at a nearby restaurant.
Poon's family owns a Chinese restaurant a few blocks away. He hopes a new owner will reopen the hotel and bring customers, but he also said downtown needs more guest rooms.
"Definitely," he said. "When a basketball game comes around, that's when you barely can find a hotel room here. You usually have to drive a couple miles down, basically out of the area."
Downtown Orlando is home to about a half-dozen hotels. Numbers provided by the city show occupancy rates were roughly 75 percent in the final quarter of last year.
The opening bid for the downtown property is $4.5 million.
The online auction also includes a DoubleTree near UCF and a Crowne Plaza near Disney.
A court-appointed receiver selected a company to auction the properties as Patel deals with an open federal court case.
The DoubleTree is in business, but the two other properties will need improvements to reopen, assuming they will stay hotels.
The auction continues until Wednesday. The highest bid right now is $10 million for the property located near Disney.
WFTV
