CHARLEMONT — Charlotte Dewey’s eight-year battle to reopen the Charlemont Inn may be coming to an end.
The town has found a receiver willing to purchase the building, according to Charlemont’s Counsel Jeffrey Blake.
If the Franklin County Housing Court appoints the receiver in a hearing set for July 26, Dewey will lose the inn, a historic building she bought in 1993 and ran until its closure in 2011.
The hearing was originally scheduled for Friday, though the town asked to postpone the court date to give the receiver time to examine the property, Blake said. The court granted this extension Friday. He declined to identify the receiver or say what they intend to do with the building, though said they do not intend to raze it.
The purpose of the hearing is to see whether Dewey has the $180,000 required to bring the building up to code. If she does not, the judge can appoint a receiver to purchase the building. Dewey said in June that she does not have the money to fix the inn, so it is likely the receiver will acquire the building at the hearing if they are still willing.
While the court required Dewey to come up with $180,000 to keep the building, that amount only scratches the surface of the estimated cost to revitalize the ailing inn. Dewey said roughly $2.4 million is required to renovate the building and reopen it as an inn.
The inn first closed in 2011 after owners Dewey and her co-owner Linda Shimandle were evicted for failing to pay $40,000 in sewer taxes. At the time, the business was struggling following a string of bad luck, Dewey previously said, including the 2008 recession and the death of a business partner who held the mortgage.
Dewey’s luck took a turn for the worse in 2015, when the building was condemned by the Board of Health for failing a series of inspections and was taken to housing court. Board of Health Co-Chair Doug Telling described the building’s issues in a June interview, saying problems included a leaky, unstable roof, rotted walls and mold and mildew.
Since it was condemned, the Board of Health and Dewey have been in and out of Housing Court over extended deadlines for repairs. In this time, Dewey said she has spent roughly $300,000 on making repairs to attempt to remove the condemnation order and reopen the inn.
Telling said work failed to bring the building up to code, and the inn remains condemned (aside from the kitchen and the basement, whose orders were lifted in 2017).
In keeping with the positive spirit Dewey has maintained these past eight years, she said Friday that all hope is not lost. She pointed out that if a receiver acquires the building, she may be able to eventually buy it back.
Town Counsel Blake agreed with Dewey’s assessment, saying she could indeed purchase the building from the receiver if she has the money to do so.
“I haven’t given up hope completely yet,” Dewey said.
Reach Grace Bird at
gbird@recorder.com or
413-772-0261, ext. 280.