BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Tran Dinh Truong (r) confers with his daughter-in-law, Ha Chu Tran, during the auction of the American Hotel in Freehold Borough on Oct. 5. Truong won the hotel and the liquor license connected to the facility with a total bid of $4.35 million. FREEHOLD — In a public auction that took less than 30 minutes, the ownership of the landmark American Hotel moved from Hoti Inc. to Tran Dinh Truong, of New York City, who bid a combined $4.35 million for the historic building and a liquor license.
The Oct. 5 event took place in a banquet room of the hotel that has been one of the borough’s most visible landmarks since the early 1800s. The venerable building has been closed since late 2003. Fire officials had identified several problem areas in the building, and a fire in April damaged the interior. However, borough officials determined that the building was structurally sound and could be repaired.
Auctioneer David R. Maltz, of Plainview, N.Y., conducts the auction of American Hotel in one of the hotel’s banquet rooms. Financial issues that dogged Hoti Inc. during its ownership of the hotel eventually came to a head and led to last week’s auction of the property and the liquor license.
Among the tattered, worn carpets and broken glass shards strewn about the hotel entryway and banquet halls, more than 100 people gathered for the auction. Some, including several local business owners, were serious bidders intent on taking home the prize. Others, including municipal officials and residents, came to observe, curious to see who would soon be their neighbors.
The auction began at 11:28 a.m. when auctioneer David R. Maltz, of Plainview, N.Y., announced that the auction would be conducted in two ways. The real and personal property in the building and the liquor license were offered first as a package, followed by the real property individually and the liquor license individually.
The goal of the sale was to raise as much money as possible for the trustees of the hotel.
Borough officials said the hotel is presently appraised at $2.4 million.
The first auction was for the property and the liquor license together. The bidding started at $200,000. Several bidders made offers immediately, but within five minutes Frank Peshe, of Staten Island, N.Y., was the only person still bidding and he was declared the winner with a bid of $2.1 million for the property and the liquor license.
Troung did not participate in that auction because he had not placed the proper deposit with the sellers. He addressed that situation and was then permitted to bid separately on the real property and later on the liquor license.
Immediately after the auction of the real property and the liquor license had concluded, bidding began for the real property alone.
The bidding began at $1 million and quickly progressed to a $2 million bid by Peshe, who was then joined in the bidding by Truong. At that point the other bidders dropped out and watched the bidding war between Peshe and Truong, as each of them quickly raised their bids in $100,000 increments.
Back and forth the two bidders went, raising their bids quickly until Truong’s bid reached $3.8 million and Peshe dropped out, leaving Truong as the winner.
At that point Maltz put the liquor license up for sale with an opening bid of $150,000. Several bidders participated early, but soon dropped out of the race that Truong initiated.
Truong bought the liquor license for $550,000 — giving him a combined winning amount of $4.35 million, or $2.25 million more than Peshe’s earlier winning bid for the property and the liquor license together.
The whole event was over shortly before noon.
The Chapter 7 trustee of the American Hotel property, David Doyaga Sr., said the outcome of the auction — having the property and the liquor license sold to the same owner — “will make everybody happy.”
Peshe, who said he is in the retail food business, said he was not disappointed at the outcome of the auction. He said he had planned to make the hotel a restaurant.
Truong was joined at the auction by a woman who spoke to him each time before he lifted his card to make a bid. The woman later identified herself as Ha Chu Tran and said she was Truong’s daughter-in-law. She said the family intends to fix the building. Troung was unavailable for comment after the bidding had ended.
Borough Administrator Joseph Bellina said there will be a “great deal of due diligence to be done” on the part of the town as well as on the part of the purchaser in regard to the hotel.
“We are hoping in the days ahead to find out more about our new partners after their financial obligations with the trustee are met. We look forward to finding out about their plans for the building as well as their timetable,” Bellina said.
Bellina said municipal officials will need to “verify that the purchasers of the hotel will be responsible partners in Freehold Borough.”
Councilman Kevin Coyne, who is the borough’s historian, said, “The American Hotel has been a beloved historic landmark for almost two centuries, where generations of local families have celebrated the milestones of their lives. We’ve just endured some of its worst years, when it was in the hands of absentee owners who ran it to the ground, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that it regains its former stature. Any new owner must understand the central role the hotel plays in the life of our downtown, and in the larger community — and the lengths we will go to in order to protect it.”
Local business owner Carl Steinberg said he came to “observe the historic event” for one of the “key” property locations in the borough.
“Any success this hotel has will be through a partnership between the wisdom of the purchaser and the borough of Freehold,” Steinberg said.