The Pilgrim House is a hotel and entertainment venue located on Commercial Street, the heart of Provincetown.
It's also at the center of an escalating legal battle.
That's according to Tyler Jager of the Provincetown Independent. CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Tyler recently to learn more.
Gilda Geist Can you just start off by reminding us of the key facts of this dispute over the Pilgrim House in Provincetown?
Tyler Jager Yes, so the Pilgrim House is a historic hotel and entertainment venue with many shows a week during the summer season historically. It has a large performance space for drag shows, piano bars and other kinds of live entertainment. This legal dispute dates back to a lawsuit filed in Puerto Rico last February by one of the owners of the Pilgram House Hotel, Maria Cirino, alleging mismanagement and fraud at the hotel, which is run day to day by two of her co-owners, Ken Horgan and Kevin Scott Bente. That lawsuit was also followed by a subsequent suit between the same parties with Elizabeth Barbeau, Cirino's partner, similarly alleging mismanagement. They're both long, complicated lawsuits about money matters, but they essentially boil down to which of the two [pairs of] co-owners has control over the business of the Pilgrim House, which was formerly split 50-50 between them.
GG One of the latest developments in this saga has to do with an auction that took place at the end of March. Can you explain what happened there?
TJ Yes, so this was an auction under a process known as a Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 secured party sale, which is a lot of legalese that just means that if a borrower defaults on a loan, a lender can foreclose on whatever collateral they put up for that loan. And Maria Cirino essentially used this legal argument to have an auction for her former business partners' shares of the business, saying that in 2022, she did give them a loan. They did not make payments on the loan sufficiently and defaulted in their agreement. They put up their entire interest in the business as collateral. So that's the rationale for the auction. It did go forward with an auctioneer on March 31, and Cirino was the only bidder and bid successfully on their shares of the business with a bid of just $10,000.
GG You reported that there was recently a standoff at the Pilgrim House between the owners earlier this month. What happened with that?
TJ Yeah, so this is according to court statements and documents. Cirino and Barbeau alleged that they arrived at the Pilgrim House hotel on the morning of April 1—so the day after they purchased those interests in the business at the auction—and sought to enter the hotel and install a prominent realtor in town, John Ciluzzi, as its interim manager. They say that Horgan and Bente refused to leave the hotel property, grant them the keys or turn over books and records. They claimed that by refusing to relinquish control over the hotel, which they had now purchased 100 of the percent shares of, they were creating serious damages for the business, which formed the basis of this new lawsuit. And that's why everyone appeared in court several days later. Horgan and Bente disputed the details of the auction, although they did not formally dispute the sale of the business.
GG The Pilgrim House has one of the largest performance spaces in town and is one of best known hotels in the area. Are there concerns that this legal dispute could impact business as the summer season quickly approaches?
TJ Well, it is a little soon to tell, but according to Cirino, there will not be an impact on the business. It is expected to remain open for the summer season. It's already posted its entertainment lineup and its events for the summer. It's already [planning on] hosting events for Lesbian Visibility Week in a week, and Cirino said in a statement to the Independent that she intends to continue the history of entertainment and hospitality at the Pilgrim House and would not stop shows at the hotel. I think we'll have to see what the summer brings, although currently the hotel is open.
