The graffiti-covered Ramada Plaza, an eyesore along Interstate 71 on the North Side for more than two years after it closed in 2015, has been sold at bankruptcy auction to a Phoenix, Arizona, company that plans to convert it into a multistory, U-Haul storage facility.

The owner of the hotel at 4900 Sinclair Road closed it because of reported water damage and heating and sewer problems. Then the property went into foreclosure. The owner was Pacific Rim Development of Columbus, which has ties to Indonesia.

Since then, vandals have trashed the interior, covered windows with graffiti, and littered the parking lot, creating a less than appealing gateway to the city from the north.

"Oh my goodness. You wouldn't believe it," said Dean Haske, president of the U-Haul company of Ohio.

On Monday, crews were cleaning out the building and beginning landscaping work. Broken windows blight the upper floors.

"Those things just take a little bit of time," Haske said.

Amerco Real Estate Co., of Phoenix, Arizona, bought the property at a bankruptcy auction Oct. 23 for $1.75 million. The sale still needs to close, said Myron Terlecky, the bankruptcy lawyer. The company buys real estate for U-Haul. Pacific Rim Development paid $2.7 million for the Ramada Plaza in 2013.

U-Haul reuses buildings like this across the country, Haske said, including a former Meijer grocery store on Georgesville Road on the Southwest Side.

"We're into adaptive reuse. We don't want to see buildings go to the landfill," he said. U-Haul International spokeswoman Andrea Batchelor said she could find no examples of the company reusing a hotel, but it has renovated multistory properties.

The owners still need to bring the Ramada property up to code, Assistant City Attorney Bill Sperlazza said. A fire in one room prompted city building inspectors to file an order declaring that room unsafe. Also, work was done without permits.

Sperlazza said the new owners need to clean trash and other debris from the property, as well as remove graffiti, secure the buildings and an outdoor swimming pool.

"There are clearly obvious problems with the building," Terlecky said. "We'll clean it up and secure it."

Sperlazza said that he expects to meet with the new owners during a court hearing Thursday, when he hopes to hear about their plans.

The hotel, which has a five-story and a six-story building, was a Scot's Inn when it opened in 1971.

David Cooper, who leads the Northland Area Business Association, said another bidder, Verge Developments LLC, offered $1.6 million to convert the former hotel into senior housing. Although he preferred that option, Cooper said that he doesn't mind that it's becoming a storage facility.

"I'd rather have that than what some of the hotels have become," he said of that and other Northland-area motels and hotels that became blighted magnets for crime.

"As bad as it looks now, I'm glad they've finally been able to move forward."

"I want to make Northland proud of that place again," said Haske, who said he grew up in the Northland area.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik