A state Supreme Court judge has allowed the hotel at the center of a migrant-related standoff between Rockland and NYC officials to reopen to guests after the county had ordered it shut.
But other legal actions have put New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to shelter migrants at the Orangeburg hotel on hold. So the decision won’t immediately impact Rockland’s efforts to stop the city from using Armoni Inn & Suites to shelter single male asylum seekers who arrived in New York City from the Southern border.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day said the judge ordered that Armoni can operate only as a hotel for normal business and “cannot operate as a shelter as they were intending.”
“Violation of that order could subject Armoni Inn & Suites and the City of New York to contempt of court,” Day said in a statement.
Rockland state Supreme Court Judge Thomas Zugibe’s ruling Thursday to permit the hotel’s reopening is temporary. The parties are expected back in New City at 2 p.m. June 14.
It remained unclear Friday if any residents had returned to the Armoni, a 171-room hotel off Route 303. The notice announcing the closure had been removed from the front entrance.
The county refused to renew Armoni’s expired operating permit last month after officials discovered it had let the permit lapse for days before applying for a renewal.
Absent that key permit, the county moved to close down the hotel under the sanitary code. Armoni, in the face of $2,000-a-day fines, kicked out residents who were already staying there.
The legal move was one of several mounted by Rockland officials as they worked to block NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to accommodate migrants in localities outside the city.
Armoni’s lawyer, Todd Soloway, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Temporary restraining orders continue
Day and county Social Services Commissioner Joan Silvestri can provide the court with information to support their move not to renew the hotel’s permit.
While the ruling states the hotel…
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