From Pittsburgh’s North Side

A Gettysburg-based company with multiple hotels won an auction to buy a bankrupt hotel on East Ohio Street that had sparked impassioned community discussions.

NM Hospitality made the winning bid of $8,775,000 on Nov. 22, beating out a Canadian development team that intended to turn the Comfort Inn & Suites into an affordable housing site, according to a filing in bankruptcy court Wednesday. The auction was the result of the hotel’s current owners, Arrakis LLC, filing for bankruptcy on Sept. 20.

Sapan Mehta, president and owner of NM Hospitality, said Wednesday that he intends to keep the space as a Comfort Inn. A hearing to finalize the sale is scheduled for Dec. 13 in the Bankruptcy Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The auction results allow East Allegheny neighbors to sidestep a debate that was brewing over alternate plans to turn the hotel into affordable housing. 

NM Hospitality was one of three bidders, according to court documents. One of the other bidders, Hullett Properties, told residents during a Nov. 11 community meeting that they intended to turn the hotel into housing for tenants with housing vouchers. Residents were split over the affordable housing proposal, though most agreed that the number of people experiencing homelessness had become more visible.  

Mehta said on Wednesday that the Comfort Inn fits in with his company’s other hotel portfolio around the area and across the region.

Mehta said his company owns hotels around the airport and in the Robinson Township area. He acknowledged that the current owners of the Comfort Inn, Arrakis LLC, went into bankruptcy but said he wasn’t worried about falling into the same financial situation. 

“This will be good. It’s a very nice area, very nice construction of the building,” Mehta said.

Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.

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Bankrupt North Side Comfort Inn won’t become affordable housing

by Eric Jankiewicz, Pittsburgh's Public Source
November 27, 2024

<h1>Bankrupt North Side Comfort Inn won’t become affordable housing</h1> <p class="byline">by Eric Jankiewicz, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />November 27, 2024</p> <p>A Gettysburg-based company with multiple hotels won an auction to buy a bankrupt hotel on East Ohio Street that had sparked impassioned community discussions.</p> <p>NM Hospitality made the winning bid of $8,775,000 on Nov. 22, beating out a Canadian development team that <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/hotel-to-housing-plan-affordable-north-side-east-ohio-street-allegheny/">intended to turn the Comfort Inn &amp; Suites</a> into an affordable housing site, according to a filing in bankruptcy court Wednesday. The auction was the result of the hotel’s current owners, Arrakis LLC, filing for bankruptcy on Sept. 20. </p> <p>Sapan Mehta, president and owner of NM Hospitality, said Wednesday that he intends to keep the space as a Comfort Inn. A hearing to finalize the sale is scheduled for Dec. 13 in the Bankruptcy Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania.</p> <p>The auction results allow East Allegheny neighbors to sidestep a debate that was brewing over alternate plans to turn the hotel into affordable housing.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://nmhhospitality.com/">NM Hospitality</a> was one of three bidders, according to court documents. One of the other bidders, Hullett Properties, told residents during a Nov. 11 community meeting that they intended to turn the hotel into housing for tenants with housing vouchers. Residents were split over the affordable housing proposal, though most agreed that the number of people experiencing homelessness had become more visible.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Mehta said on Wednesday that the Comfort Inn fits in with his company’s other hotel portfolio around the area and across the region.</p> <p>Mehta said his company owns hotels around the airport and in the Robinson Township area. He acknowledged that the current owners of the Comfort Inn, Arrakis LLC, went into bankruptcy but said he wasn’t worried about falling into the same financial situation. </p> <p>“This will be good. It's a very nice area, very nice construction of the building,” Mehta said. </p> <p>Eric Jankiewicz <em>is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/comfort-inn-east-ohio-street-bankrupt-bid-nm-hospitality/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1313412&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/comfort-inn-east-ohio-street-bankrupt-bid-nm-hospitality/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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