Editor’s note: The auction of the Seashore Park Inn that was scheduled for Aug. 8, as reported below, has been postponed to Friday, Aug. 23 at 11 a.m.
ORLEANS — Coastal Heritage Bank of Weymouth has scheduled a foreclosure auction at the 63-room Seashore Park Inn on Aug. 8. The auction was originally set for March but was postponed. Taylor Perkins, who owns the inn, predicted Tuesday that the auction would once again be canceled, but as of this week’s deadline it was still set to take place.
Perkins, a Maine hotelier and principal of Cape Cod Lodge LLC, purchased the three-acre property, which includes a hotel overlooking the Orleans-Eastham Route 6 rotary and indoor and outdoor swimming pools, at 24 Canal Road for $5.1 million in July 2022.
Perkins initially secured a commercial mortgage as well as a construction loan, which he paid off a year later when he signed a $5,250,000 mortgage agreement with Coastal Heritage in August 2023.
Four months later, Perkins was in trouble. The bank sent a certified demand letter calling in the full mortgage amount on Dec. 28 because Perkins had failed to make scheduled payments.
It wasn’t just the bank that was on the hook. The Surf Company, a Maine-based limited liability company where Perkins is listed as an officer, and the L.F. Perkins Family Trust along with its trustee, Maine resident Lynwood Fiske Perkins, had guaranteed the loan. The corporations are connected to two hotels, York Beach Surf Club and Sea Latch Inn, that the Perkins family owns in York, Maine.
When the bank failed to receive a response to its demand letter and still saw no mortgage payments, its lawyers filed a complaint in Norfolk Superior Court in February, asking the court
to enter a judgment against Cape Cod Lodge, Taylor Perkins, Lynwood Fiske Perkins, the Perkins Trust, and the Surf Company.
The principal, interest, and late fees, along with a $157,000 penalty, came to $5,476,062, according to the bank’s December demand letter.
The bank also asked for a preliminary injunction freezing the assets of the Cape Cod Lodge, the Surf Company, and L.F. Perkins Trust, other than amounts needed for day-to-day business. According to court documents, the bank requested the injunction because it believed Cape Cod Lodge “will not voluntarily allow the bank to peaceably repossess its collateral.”
Without an injunction, the bank said, it would suffer financial harm because “the collateral securing the notes has limited, if any, value at liquidation.”
In his response to the court, Perkins provided an assessment of Seashore Park Inn done in March 2023, which set its value at $8 million. The property is currently assessed at $4,680,600 by the town of Orleans.
Perkins also provided a copy of the agreement he had with Chatham Bars Inn, which had booked all 63 rooms at Seashore Park from April to October 2023 to house its employees. Chatham Bars also booked 20 rooms for the month of November. The agreement called for a $94,500 security deposit, a total of $661,500 in rent for April through October, and $30,000 for November, at $1,500 per month per room. The agreement contained renewal provisions for future years.
Chatham Bars Inn’s administrative offices did not respond to a phone call or email asking whether that agreement had carried through to the 2024 season, but a tenant at Seashore Park confirmed that the rooms were being used again this season by Chatham Bars Inn employees.
The hearing on Coastal Heritage Bank’s injunction request in Norfolk Superior Court has been postponed several times, based on requests from both sides. The date for the injunction hearing is currently set for Aug. 21.
Just how much interest the auction of Seashore Park will generate remains to be seen. Auctioneer Daniel McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Co. in Waltham did not respond to a query about the number of bidders who have registered to participate in the auction, which is set for noon on Aug. 8.
Taylor Perkins declined to comment for this story other than to say, in an email Tuesday, that the upcoming auction will be canceled.
