The News Journal reports today that the backers of the proposed electric car plant in Century have tax problems. Jay and Nash Patel’s LHS Pensacola Inc. owns the Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada and Travelodge motels along Hwy 29 and I-10. The company has four pending liens, filed by the DOR’s general counsel in late August, for $16,926; $20,500; $21,299; and $7,546.
We searched the Escambia Clerk of Courts website and found the Patel’s spokesman, Arthur Rocker, has a tax problem also. The IRS filed tax lien on him on August 25, 2008 for $39,168.
See rockerlien.pdf
Also Beach Community Bank foreclosed on property Rocker owned in the Norwood Subdivision in June 2008. There appears to be another repossession back in Oct. 2005 of 4255 Brookside Drive.
The Patels have a $2.5 million matching grant application pending with the state’s Renewable Energy and Energy-Efficiency Technologies program. At a Nov. 12 County Commission meeting, Rocker asked the county on behalf of the Patels, for $2.5 million in cash to assist in the car project.