The owner of the Cortina Inn is fighting in court to have its license to operate the hotel reinstated, after the Department of Health shut it down in December.
On Dec. 3, the Vermont Department of Health (VDH) issued an order suspending the Cortina Inn’s license to operate for at least 60 days following a series of inspections that claimed various code violations.
Located in Rutland Town, the Cortina Inn — formerly Holiday Inn — is owned by ARD Realty LLC. The company bought the inn from Tulsi Rudraksha Hospitality LLC in 2023 for $11,451,000.
During the pandemic, and until it was shut down, the Cortina sheltered many people experiencing homelessness who were using the state’s General Assistance Emergency Housing program.
On March 6, ARD Realty LLC, represented by Rutland attorney Frank Urso, filed an appeal to the Department of Health’s denial of ARD Realty’s request to reinstate its license. There was a hearing held on the matter Monday in Rutland Superior Court Civil Division, presided over by Judge Alexander Burke, who has yet to release a decision.
Urso said Wednesday that he thinks the hearing went well, but can’t predict what Burke will decide nor when he will issue a decision.
“We believe we’ve now complied with every minor complaint they’ve had in all 150 rooms. And it’s in the hands of Judge Burke. We had the hearing on Monday. He took it under advisement. Haven’t heard from him yet. But we’re hoping that we can reopen because this is Draconian,” said Urso.
The health department was represented by Assistant Attorney General C. Justin Sheng.
“VDH presented evidence from the previous four inspections regarding the conditions at the motel, which led to the December suspension, including, most recently, the presence of bedbugs and rodents in guest rooms, among other violations,” Amelia Vath, outreach and communications coordinator at the Vermont Attorney General’s office, stated in an email on Thursday. “The Department’s position is that the Cortina’s license cannot be reinstated until an inspection demonstrates that the violations have been corrected, and there are no new violations.”
Urso said the inn has been unfairly blamed for issues that stemmed from the GA program.
“The state came to us asking to help house the homeless and then when they didn’t vet these people properly, there’s been vandalism in the hotel, allegations of criminality at the shopping center next door and the Cortina Inn gets blamed for it,” said Urso. “It’s not fair. And in this era of housing shortages, how does the Department of Health shut down a 150-room hotel that used to house the homeless?”
He said that the inn hasn’t been able to generate any revenue for four months. Urso said that ARD Realty estimates it has lost about $150,000 per month in revenue because of this.
According to Urso, the inspection done in February said 45 rooms were in satisfactory condition and that 22 needed general cleaning. He said that ARD Reality has asked the court and the department to allow it to let out at least the rooms that are in order but that hasn’t happened.
“We need a lifeline. We’ve got zero revenues,” he said.
“On Monday, we asked the court, we think the whole thing should be vacated because we’ve complied, but if you’re not going to give us that, at least let us open the rooms that are already to be determined in satisfactory condition,” Urso said, adding that some of the issues flagged by the department are trivial in nature.
According to an affidavit filed with the court by Dhruv Kumar, of ARD Reality, the Dec. 3 order that suspended the inn’s license, led to 25 rooms that were sheltering people experiencing homelessness to be vacated.
