Dunkirk Hospitality LLC is fighting the village of Fredonia’s attempts to force those staying at the former Route 60 EconoLodge to leave the building.

The company filed an Article 78 lawsuit Friday asking the state Supreme Court to annul and vacate Fredonia’s April 27 direction to vacate the property without Dunkirk Hospitality LLC having an opportunity to be heard. The village had given a deadline of May 6 for that to happen. The company is also asking the court to require Fredonia to hold an expedited post-deprivation administrative hearing before a neutral officer on a court-required schedule and to issue a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Fredonia’s April 27 order with reasonable safety conditions to be set by the state Supreme Court.

Lastly, Dunkirk Hospitality is asking the court to grant compensatory damages for the balance of debt service owed on the property and the loss of income if Dunkirk Hospitality from the forced removal of the hotel’s occupants last week.

The lawsuit comes after Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson said during a Village Board meeting that he had called for the immediate closure and abandonment of the property.

Richard Morrisroe, who is representing Dunkirk Hospitality LLC, said the hotel company received a letter the day of the meeting saying the property is violating several village codes and is unsafe for living, citing inspections April 23-24. The hotel company received the letter April 29, two days after the Village Board meeting and describes roof leaks, missing tiles, ventilation issues and other conditions but did not provide a procedure or date for a hearing before a neutral officer to contest the order to vacate. Morrisroe said state courts have vacated municipal vacate and demolition orders where the locality didn’t give enough notice and an opportunity to be heard, generally ruling that due process requires pre- or post-deprivation hearings.

“During the following week, petitioner’s counsel made several attempts to dissuade the respondents from pursuing this course of action, made mention of the procedural issues and lack of due process and encouraged formal negotiations with written agreements; unfortunately, those attempts, although politely acknowledged, were ignored,” Morrisroe wrote in the legal complaint.

The village’s April 27 letter that promises for plans to improve the property have never been delivered. Specifically, the village said a collapsing roof affects the entire envelope of the building with multiple rooms with tarps hanging from the ceiling, bathroom drop ceiling tiles gone or under water that has soaked them due to the roof leaking through the decking and no vent fans or windows in the bathrooms in violation of state building codes.

Kulwinder Singh, managing member for Dunkirk Hospitality LLC, said code officers visited the building April 23-24 accompanied by what Singh said were four to five armed Fredonia police officers to inspect the property with no warrant presented or citations given, nor any proof of probable cause of an immediate emergency.

“In spite of the lack of decorum and proper procedure, we did not attempt to stop the inspections, and we agreed with all requests to see rooms and parts of the building that had no occupants and that were not open to the occupants and guests,” Singh said in an affidavit filed along with the lawsuit.

Morrisroe’s letter in response to the village was sent April 30 and criticizes the village for previous attempts to reclassify the Route 60 property as a long-term dwelling rather than a short-stay hotel, for operating without a certificate of compliance and code violations related to areas of public assembly, buildings or structures.

“While the building certainly has some issues in need of repair, is that what this is really about?” Morrisroe asked. “Really? Given all the different types of violations cited at different dates, this smacks of desperation. I find the timing interesting. As a College Council member, I am aware graduation is coming soon. Are we afraid of the former EconoLodge scaring away parents and friends of 2026 graduates? Or is it a perception issue? Or is it NIMBY, as it is in Falconer?”

The Chautauqua County Department of Social Services houses homeless people at the motel, who are the majority of its tenants. Ferguson has long decried both the allegedly bad conditions of the property and the series of violent incidents that have taken place there, including an August 2024 shooting. The Econo Lodge motel chain took its name off the property in 2025. Ferguson painted a different picture of the situation when he spoke during the April 27 Village Board meeting.

“I have asked the county to safely separate the women and children and make sure they have somewhere safe to live, and separate them from the rapists, pedophiles and drug dealers and others that have been allowed to stay in that hotel with them,” Ferguson said. “We had our (police) officers go into that building twice this week with our code enforcement, and it was deplorable — the amount of mold, the amount of damage, literally people asking patrolmen to take them out of there safely. The damage is bad enough that we’re going to have to condemn the building and probably the owners will have to have it razed.”