SPRINGFIELD — The winning bidders who purchased the imposing but dilapidated Paramount Theater/Massasoit House is a family-owned Connecticut development company that restored a small movie theater and developed housing and retail in nearby Windsor.

Sachdev Real Estate Development of Suffield paid $750,000 for the Paramount and Massasoit property, a block-sized building at 1676-1708 Main St. and 33 Gridiron St., according to documents filed Wednesday with the Registrar of Hampden County Deeds. Sachdev – under the leadership of Chairman Manmohan Sachdev – was the anonymous bidder in an online auction in late September.

“Our intention is to revitalize the Paramount and renovate the former Massasoit Hotel to support local small businesses, non-profit organizations and Springfield residents,” Sachdev Development said in a written statement. “Led by Dr. Mohan Sachdev with the support of his development team and family, Sachdev Real Estate Development, Inc. understands the impact art can have on economic development. We recognize and appreciate the enormous investment and work that developers, nonprofit organizations and private families have made in Springfield, and are pleased to join this network, committed to making the city of firsts once again shining star in New England.

Mohan Sachdev, a veterinarian, was unavailable and his son, Neill Sachdev, declined further comment.

The seller was the New England Farm Workers’ Council.

On Wednesday, Daniel M. Knapik, president and CEO of the Farm Workers’ Council’s parent organization, Partners for Community, said he believed any redevelopment would be a mix of apartments and businesses.

Indian restaurant Punjabi tadka now operates at the Paramount and the former Luva restaurant doesn’t need much work, Knapik said.

The rest of the Paramount and Massasoit House require a lot of work due to falling plaster and persistent water leaks. The theater hasn’t hosted an event in about a decade.

In June, Sachdev inaugurated work on the residences in Bowfield Green in Windsor. It’s a $20 million residential and commercial development on two vacant sites and a former Ford dealership, according to the Hartford Business Journal.

In 2012, the Sachdev family renovated the Place Theater and its adjoining storefronts on Broad Street, also in Windsor.

The theater was built in 1929.

The 1,750-seat Paramount Theater opened the same year as the stock market crash, also as a movie palace, just as talkies were entering the scene. Paramount also always had stage shows, with Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges and Jerry Seinfeld. It was once a rock venue with acts like Chuck Berry and eventually rapper 50 Cent.

The Massasoit House Hotel dates back even further, to 1843. Built to serve the railroad station across Main Street, the Massasoit House has hosted dignitaries including four U.S. presidents: Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as Jefferson. Davis of the Confederacy, when he was U.S. Secretary of War.

The council purchased the building in 2011 for $1.73 million and made it a centerpiece of economic development plans, at one point as part of the Penn National casino proposal that lost to MGM and later as a boutique hotel developed by the owners of the Red Lion Inn. None of the proposals took off.

Since last year, the New England Farm Workers Council was forced to sell its real estate portfolio, including Paramount, to pay off its debts. These debts included more than $1.8 million owed to the state after home heating subsidies were poorly spent for other purposes.

Funding was entrusted to longtime council leader Heriberto Flores. Flores, politically connected within the Latino community, declined to discuss the situation.

The council received a $2.5 million state grant for Paramount in 2018. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave the city a $3.6 million loan guarantee to support the project. Both funding announcements brought state and local officials to Paramount.

Under the Red Lion plan, the money was used to replace roofs, do interior work on the old hotel and improve electrical service.

Today, visitors to the hotel rooms and dining areas on the upper floors can see where walls were removed in preparation for this construction. It appears that engineers were exposing structural elements to inform plans for a possible renovation.

But these hotel projects failed with the pandemic.

The board pledged its real estate, including Paramount, to the state this year, securing $1.8 million in debt.

The Farm Workers Council improperly spent $1,849,775 in Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program funds when it administered the program here. He had to pay the money back.

Under Knapik, a former Westfield mayor, the council reduced debt, Knapik said, providing a recent financial report showing the council owed the state $575,000 as of Sept. 18.

The sale of Paramount did not directly help LIHEAP’s debt, Knapik said. But it canceled a $952,000 loan and removed $400,000 a year in maintenance, a $125,000 tax bill and other expenses from the council’s budget.

In December, Farm Works plans to auction off 217-225 High St. in Holyoke, commercial buildings across the street from City Hall. The council still has an interest in the Borinquen Apartments between Sheldon and Huntington streets and an office building at 32 Hampden Street. All are for sale.

The council still has four employees and administers a federal program to aid migrant farm workers, a nod to the organization’s roots. The council also holds the master lease for 1628-1640 Main St., a building it once owned but sold and still manages.

At 1628-1640 Main St., the council just leased the second storefront at street level, the one next to Urban Gear. The third and fourth floors have tenants. The second floor is available.