A landmark Hot Springs building that was once "majestic" in name and stature was in the process of being boarded up Monday.
"We've been trying to get them to do it for a long time," Mike Scott, chief building official for the city, said Monday of the former Majestic Hotel located near the intersection of Park and Central avenues.
Scott said the owners of the property didn't need a permit to board the windows and doors because that was considered "normal maintenance."
"They should have been doing it to start with," he said.
Scott said Bart Jones, Hot Springs' neighborhood services administrator, notified the owners that the property needed to be boarded up. The matter was set for a court date last week on an allegation that the building was out of compliance with the city's vacant building code.
Scott said the case was continued for about six weeks, and apparently the owners are now trying to make the building secure prior to the next court date.
The former hotel, which sits on more than 5 acres of property, closed its doors in October 2006 after 124 years of business.
The property was previously owned by Southwest Hotels Inc. The company, owned by Monty and Becky Scott, also owns the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa. The Majestic property was transferred to The Arc Arkansas several years ago to be renovated into an apartment complex with ground-floor retail shopping.
"I wish it had worked, but it didn't. We weren't stout enough," Cynthia Stone, COO of The Arc Arkansas, said Monday.
Kansas City, Mo., investor-developer Garrison Hassenflu became involved with the property in 2011. His business, Park Residences Development LLC, is listed as the current owner of the Majestic property. Hassenflu announced in May 2013 that he was listing the property for sale.
The hotel complex consists of the Lanai Suites, built in 1957; the Lanai Towers, the tallest building in the complex, located at the west end of the property, built in the early 1960s; the original hotel, built in 1882, at the north end of the complex, where the spa and bath house are located; and the red brick building called the Annex, which is where the lobby is located, built in the 1920s.
In May 2013, Hassenflu said the concept of turning the building into an apartment complex was "still a possibility," but housing tax credits had not been received and the company could not reapply for state and federal assistance until 2014.
In May 2012, city officials said the building "had major structural defects that needed to be corrected, broken and missing doors and windows, overgrown grounds, stagnant water in the swimming pool, mold and mildew, loose bricks, and leaking roofs."
Hassenflu said then that the building had been secured, but occasionally had to be re-secured.
"It's a quandary at this point," Hot Springs Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said Monday.
"Public health and safety has to come first and from that aspect, it's good to see they are making an effort to keep people out of there. It's in no condition to support human occupancy," she said.
"It's very unfortunate that it's such a visible building. It is indeed one of the anchors of downtown, visually. When you look that way, that's what you see. It would be wonderful to have something that more adequately represents the spirit and culture of Hot Springs than what we have there now," she said.
Local on 02/18/2014