The long-shuttered Crescent Beach Restaurant in Greece will go on the auction block early next month, the latest chapter in the demise of restaurateur Katherine Mott‘s hospitality empire.
Court-appointed referee Michael Schnittman, attorney with Brighton-based Evans Fox LLP, has scheduled the foreclosure auction of Crescent Beach, at 1372 Edgemere Drive, and seven adjacent parcels for 10 a.m. on Dec. 9 in the lower atrium of the Hall of Justice in downtown Rochester.
State Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle on Oct. 20 granted approval for sale of the properties as Casciani Construction Co. Inc. attempts to recoup $1.823 million from Mott and affiliated entities on a defaulted loan.
Mott used a loan from Casciani to make the $2.39 million purchase of the properties in November 2023. She planned to renovate and then reopen the historic restaurant, which sits along the shore of Lake Ontario.
Crescent Beach, once a popular destination for fine dining, weddings, graduations and other special occasions, has been closed since 2012.
Mott’s plans to revive the lakefront landmark collapsed just four months after the purchase, however. Five Star Bank filed a civil complaint in March 2024, alleging that she and co-conspirators masterminded an elaborate check-kiting scheme that cost the financial institution $19 million.
Before criminal charges were even announced, Mott, 56, of Pittsford, pleaded guilty in federal court in December 2024 to financial institution fraud and money laundering. She faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine at sentencing, now scheduled for December.
Her sentencing has been postponed at least five times, apparently as she continues to cooperate with federal authorities.
The civil lawsuit and criminal case uprooted her business endeavors. She sold Monroe’s Restaurant, Rare 3001 and the Wintergarden event center, and couldn’t prevent the financial collapse of event destination Divinity Estate & Chapel.
The foreclosure action by Casciani Construction was filed in March 2025 and trumped a lien filed by Genesee Construction Service Inc. over $542,000 in unpaid construction bills.
Genesee Construction Service of Dansville alleged in court papers that Casciani recharacterized the mortgage from a “building loan mortgage” to a “purchase money mortgage” after the fact. The court disagreed, allowing the Casciani foreclosure to proceed.
The court-appointed receiver in the civil case, Buffalo-based certified public accountant Mark Kercher, was unsuccessful in his attempts last year to broker the sale of Crescent Beach on behalf of Five Star Bank.
The other properties also to be auctioned on Dec. 9 include some vacant lots and some residential properties, all on Edgemere Drive: 1352, 1384, 1390, 1400, 1405, 1406 and 1409.
Two other residential properties affiliated with Mott and used as collateral on the loan from Casciani Construction will not be subject to a court-ordered sale should the December auction fulfill the debt obligation, court filings show.
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Dining and Cooking