Empire Hotel In Secaucus Is Supposed To Be Gut Renovated, Will Reopen As A Hotel Again

SECAUCUS, NJ — Here are more details on the former Empire hotel property off Meadowlands Parkway:

This building used to be a high-end hotel, but it closed about 10 years ago and has been sitting vacant ever since. On Tuesday, Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli announced there are new owners of the property, and they are committed to making it a hotel once again.

It will not open anytime soon, said Gonnelli, and it will certainly not be ready in time for the FIFA World Cup games this summer, taking place right across the river at MetLife.

Gonnelli said it will likely take them one to two years to entirely clean out the inside of the building and reopen.

This building and property used to be owned by Rosdev, a real estate holding company based in Montreal. The Empire Hotel (2 Harmon Plaza) is listed on their website as one of their projects.

Three years ago, Rosdev leased the building to Ashok Bhatt, a California resident and president of Turtlebrook Investments, LLC. Bhatt signed a 15-year agreement to lease the building.

Bhatt was sued by the town of Orangeburg, New York for using another hotel he managed there, Armoni Inn & Suites, to house undocumented immigrants. He had contracted with New York City to house undocumented immigrants. At the time, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city was overwhelmed by the unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers, and the city was running out of space to house them. The city paid small motels outside the five boroughs to house undocumented immigrants, and Armoni Inn & Suites was one of them.

Once Secaucus learned that's what Bhatt used his other hotel for, the town, under business administrator Gary Jeffas, made Bhatt sign a letter stating the Empire would not be used to house undocumented immigrants.

After Bhatt signed that letter, his plans to reopen the hotel evaporated. It is unknown how his 15-year lease with Rosdev was resolved. And Rosdev has now sold the building to a new owner, said Jeffas. It is the new owner who is renovating it and plans to reopen it as a hotel.

Jeffas said he did not know the name of the new owner.

Secaucus has long fought prior attempts by Rosdev to convert the Empire into a luxury condo building. Converting the building into condos were always Rosdev's preference for the property. Even though Rosdev has experience in hotel management, they did not want to operate the building as a hotel.

"No more condos," was all Gonnelli would say Tuesday. "It would overwhelm the school system."

The building is in severe disrepair. The outdoor pool and patio collapsed. Secaucus Police have been called there numerous times for reports of homeless people camped out inside.

But Gonnelli vows the new mystery owner will spend the next two years gut-renovating the entire building, and plans to reopen as a luxury hotel. They even plan to reopen the ballroom again, he said. Expect to see several large Dumpsters outside the hotel as the clean-up begins.

"They already started doing some of this work," Jeffas said Tuesday. "This is a large hotel and the work will take some time. At one point in time this was one of the nicest hotels in town and we are looking forward to its return to operation."

“Any time a property the size of the Empire Hotel is vacant, it is not good for our town," Gonnelli said in a statement on Facebook Tuesday. "That property was a blight for several years and we had many problems with it. The town even fined the owner for several violations. I am glad the new owner is now responsibly making renovations, and I look forward to the opening of the new hotel.”

Editor's note: This story has been edited and corrected from when it was originally published. Rosdev is no longer the owner of this property; they sold it to a new unknown owner. Carly.baldwin@patch.com

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