In our May 25th edition we incorrectly reported that Oheka Castle was being pushed into bankruptcy court. This suggestion was pointing out that the actions of the lender, LNR, could push a lesser entity in that direction. To be clear, this is not the case with Oheka. The castle is not in bankruptcy proceedings and is not in any danger of shutting down. We apologize to Oheka Castle and its owner, Gary Melius for the stress caused.

The Long Islander News reviewed the detailed court proceedings that indicates that LNR, the mortgage holder on the Castle, has an alleged history sharp business practices. As suggested in the cases cited in court filings, LNR utilizes methodologies that are questionable to obtain properties for their portfolios. LNR is owned by Starwood Properties, the hotel chain giant. By connecting the dots, it would suggest that Starwood could gain access to owning this world renowned historic property for a fraction of its worth. Our calls for an interview with LNR and Starwood were not answered.

The current state of affairs at Oheka, based on our review of accounting statements, has the Castle operating at peak efficiency and at a profit.

Our investigation took over 2 months and we reviewed the legal documents and interviewed key players. We will release the full story in this week’s edition of the Long Islander News.