Spicer Mansion owner files bankruptcy petition
Brian Gates, the owner of Spicer Mansion, the boutique Mystic hotel that’s the subject of ongoing foreclosure proceedings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday, forestalling foreclosure sales scheduled Saturday of four other properties he owns, including his Stonington residence.
Notice of Gates’ bankruptcy petition was filed in New London Superior Court by his attorney, Richard Malafronte. The petition itself, filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut, was not immediately available online.
The state’s judicial website indicated that Saturday’s scheduled foreclosure sales, all set to take place at noon, were cancelled. The sales were to include public auctions of Gates’ home at 116 Cove Road in Stonington, as well as two Putnam properties, one a commercial building at 18 S. Main St., the other a residence at 118 School St., and a strip shopping center at 32-44 Norwich Road, Plainfield.
All four of the properties were used to secure a mortgage loan Chelsea Groton Bank granted Gates on the hotel in 2015. The bank lodged a foreclosure suit against Gates in 2019, alleging he was in default on the loan.
The hotel was auctioned at a March foreclosure sale, with Ross Weingarten, a Gates business associate, submitting a winning bid of $3.52 million. Weingarten subsequently failed to close on the purchase by a court-ordered deadline, risking forfeiture of his $367,000 deposit.
Weingarten is contesting the forfeiture.
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