SHAMOKIN - After a lengthy legal battle, Center City Apartments may soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
In an order dated June 13, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied an application to reconsider the affirmation of Northumberland County Judge Charles Saylor's decision by the state Superior Court that two mortgages on the building, held by the Shamokin Housing Authority, are valid.
With this latest denial, the housing authority can now hold a sheriff's sale on the Shamokin Street apartment building, the former James Madison Hotel. The authority filed paperwork in November to hold the sale, but it was stayed by Saylor to give Red Gold Enterprises a chance to use every avenue to appeal.
On May 30, Saylor issued an order on the stay once the state Supreme Court rendered its decision: "It is further clarified that the stay of the sheriff's sale shall be deemed automatically lifted in the event the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denies the pending applications for reconsideration of the denials of the petitions."
"With the order being handed down, we are going to wait for the sale to be scheduled," said authority director Ronald Miller. "We have already served (Red Gold) with the paperwork, so we now we are waiting for the date."
Red Gold asked the state Supreme court to hear arguments in its appeal of the validity of $1 million allegedly owed on a mortgage which the company has not made a payment since 1998. The company claims the mortgage, which enabled Red Gold to purchase the former James Madison Hotel in Shamokin, is invalid because a 2000 foreclosure action was dismissed with prejudice in 2004, meaning that the action cannot be revived in court.
In 2009, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency turned the mortgages over to the Shamokin Housing Authority, which was the plaintiff in the court case.
In 2010, Red Gold appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which upheld Saylor's ruling that the mortgages are valid. Red Gold, owned by Eugene Picarella, filed a subsequent appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which denied a Feb. 23 motion to hear that appeal. The company appealed again March 7.
It is not known what Red Gold plans to do now that its most recent motion has been denied. Calls to Red Gold's attorney, Robert Cravitz, of Selinsgrove, were not returned.