Torrington City Council: Updates on The Yankee Pedlar Inn

12/15/25, 6:30 PM
Present: Mayor Molly Spino, and City Councilors David Oliver, Anne Ruwet, Armand Maniccia, Rachel Hannon-Harrel, and Chris Beyus. Councilor Paul Cavagnero joined the meeting over Zoom.

The Torrington Development Corporation (TDC) is on its way to courting a developer for The Yankee Pedlar Inn — a historic hotel in downtown Torrington that has had its future mired in uncertainty after years of legal battles in court.

TDC officials said at the Dec. 15 meeting of the Torrington City Council that they are wading through a legal battle with Jayson Hospitality, the owner of The Yankee Pedlar Inn, and that they should be moving forward with the process of finding a new developer for the old hotel soon.

In July 2024, a judge deliberating on the clash between Torrington and Jayson Hospitality ruled that TDC could become a receiver of the building. A receiver is a neutral third party that manages a property being disputed while legal proceedings unfold. The lawsuit was filed by the city in 2021 against Jayson Hospitality after city officials said they had tried to work with the developer for six years to turn around the blighted property and did not see results.
So far, TDC has applied and received two state grants from the state’s Department of Economic Community Development. These total $1.6 million to help fix up the building, said Valerie Ferro, the president of Good Earth Consulting LLC — an entity that runs the TDC. At least $1.4 million of that pool will go toward remediation work at the site of the old hotel. Another $200,000 has gone to brownfield site studies.

“We did some very extensive testing, of course we found issues,” Ferro said. “We now know those cost estimates for those issues.”

Ferro also called the building one of the worst she had ever seen. As the work on the building continues, Ferro said, the TDC will continue to seek grant funding to potentially entice developers after legal proceedings conclude.

Mayor Spino and Councilors Ruwet and Beyus thanked the TDC for their work on the building.

“A lot of people didn’t realize how much work has gone on behind the scenes for The Yankee Pedlar,” Spino said. “So I really appreciate you coming tonight and doing this presentation.”