El Dorado County Ends Talks to Buy Mother Lode Motel and Gold Trail Motor Lodge
Ben van der Meer, Sacramento Business Journal
(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) June 30, 2022 — El Dorado County has ended talks to potentially buy two motels in Placerville, with the two sides unable to come to terms.
County supervisors voted this week to end talks to buy the Mother Lode Motel and Gold Trail Motor Lodge, two neighboring properties on Broadway in Placerville with the same owner.
Earlier this year, county officials first began looking at the motels, at 1940 and 1970 Broadway, to acquire for potential conversion into homeless shelters. Mother Lode Motel, with 22 rooms, dates to 1959, while Gold Trail Motor Lodge, built in 1947, has 33 rooms.
But after first offering to buy or sign a long-term lease for the properties, the county switched gears in recent months to ask about leasing them for only two years, owners Deepak and Divya Patel told the Business Journal.
“How many years have we worked to build our reputation,” said Divya Patel, who’s owned the properties with her husband since 1998. “And we just remodeled one of them last year.”
If the couple had agreed to a two-year lease, she said, the properties would likely be in such disrepair at the end of the lease that both would need a full remodel again.
According to agenda items before the board in April, El Dorado County officials were investigating both short-term leases and long-term leases or buying the properties, for first as short-term navigation centers for people without homes and then more permanent navigation centers for the same purpose.
When word began to circulate that the motels might become homeless shelters, Divya Patel added, Placerville residents without a home began showing up on the property and asking for rooms. […]