The Addison House, a popular First Street restaurant, has closed allegedly due to financial problems.
That is according to attorney Gerald DeAngelis of Freeport, who represents Gary Nitowski, owner of AJN Holdings. AJN holdings owns the building that houses the restaurant.
DeAngelis said he heard that the restaurant had closed June 6.
"Which was the same day that I filed my eviction notice against the Addison House," he said.
He said that under a lease signed in 2004, Addison House LLC agreed to pay $1,000 a month in rent.
"A total of $4,000 in rent was paid," DeAngelis said, "leaving a total of $92,000 in rent unpaid."
In addition, DeAngelis confirmed that the Internal Revenue Service has seized the business' property to satisfy an $80,000 debt for unpaid income taxes withheld from employees.
Josh Spiering, owner of the restaurant business, did not return phone messages or an email to the Addison House email address left by a Valley News Dispatch reporter seeking comment for this story.
Spiering is the former stepson of Nitowski, who recently divorced Spiering's mother, who was not involved in the business.
In addition, Nitowski was once one of three partners in Addison House LLC, along with Spiering and the late Laura Stettmier of Parks Township.
DeAngelis said his client left the partnership because the restaurant business was proving to be unprofitable.
"According to Josh, he never made a nickel on the place," DeAngelis said.
"If you are doing a $500,000 a year in business, and you are going further and further in the hole, why would you want to keep the place going?"
Stettmier was killed in a the crash of a private plane in West Virginia in October along with Chas Armitage Jr. with whom she lived and their friend who piloted the plane, businessman Michael Garrone of Allegheny Township.
DeAngelis said the building became an issue in his client's divorce proceeding, which began in 2006.
"We've been trying to sell that place," DeAngelis said. "It was on the market and going down the chute long before (Stettmier) passed away."
He said that initially the agreement between his client, Stettmier and Spiering was that the restaurant would continue to operate while the building was on the market. The initial thinking, he said, is that it would be easier to sell commercial property if there is a business occupying it.
But that didn't happen, and there were still no rent payments being made even though Addison House LLC had shed another debt, he said.
"The mortgage to pay for on the equipment and furnishings was paid off by insurance when Stettmaier died," DeAngelis said.
Previously, Addison House LLC had difficulty making payments on that debt, according to DeAngelis.
"They defaulted several times," DeAngelis said. "Foreclosure proceedings were started several times and then stopped when they came up with the money."
He said the same thing occurred in May 2011 when the restaurant's liquor license came up for renewal. At the time the Addison House owed the state about $15,000 in unpaid sales tax, which had to be paid in order to the renew the license.
DeAngelis said among the last documents he obtained regarding the restaurant was a list of creditors. He said Armitage was on the list as being owed $52,000 and may have been the source of the financial assistance that kept the restaurant in operation.
DeAngelis said with no offers being made on the building, his client wanted the business out.
"In the meantime, my client is under court order to sell that," DeAngelis said. "That order was entered in 2011 and Josh has been dragging his feet."
Now, he said the IRS is in the midst of determining whether it will dispose of the property it has seized through a bulk sale or on a piecemeal basis.
