One year later: Fire became 'rallying cry' for downtown redevelopment

The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen
The Hot Springs Fire Department pours water onto the oldest building of the Majestic Hotel complex as it is consumed by fire on Feb. 27, 2014.
The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen The Hot Springs Fire Department pours water onto the oldest building of the Majestic Hotel complex as it is consumed by fire on Feb. 27, 2014.

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The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn NO CHANGE: The pile of rubble left when the oldest section of the Majestic Hotel burned a year ago today remains in place along Park Avenue. The cleanup plan approved by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality shows that removal of the debris is to be completed by March 5.

One year later, rubble from the oldest portion of the Majestic Hotel remains piled along Park Avenue on the anniversary of the fire that consumed the structure and became a "rallying cry" for downtown redevelopment.

The "yellow brick building" caught fire around 5:30 p.m. Feb. 27, 2014, and burned throughout the night despite the efforts of the Hot Springs Fire Department and several nearby volunteer fire departments. The remains of the building were razed on Feb. 28 and March 1 in the interest of public safety.

A cleanup plan for the site was submitted by Bruce Maxwell, Majestic disaster project manager for Park Residences Development LLC, the owner of the building. The manager of the firm is Garrison Hassenflu, according to Arkansas secretary of state records.

The cleanup plan, which was approved by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, called for debris removal to take place in 75 days, and be completed by March 5.

Katherine Benenati, public outreach and assistance division chief for ADEQ, said in an email Thursday that the removal plan "calls for debris to be removed from the site by March 5 and the owner is on schedule with the plan so far. The full cleanup will take longer."

In a separate email, she said it is "premature to speculate on what actions ADEQ would take if the debris removal is not finished by March 5, but we are monitoring the site closely."

"They still have their deadline with ADEQ on March 5, and we will be returning to the board March 17 for consideration of condemnation," City Attorney Brian Albright said Thursday in regard to the possible condemnation of the other portions of the Majestic Hotel complex, including the "red brick building" and Lanai Towers sections.

Hassenflu pleaded no contest to 10 violations of the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code in December, admitted the remaining buildings were unsafe, and was fined $500, plus court costs.

The proposal to condemn the buildings has been tabled by the Hot Springs Board of Directors three previous times. Albright said Thursday he would "let the board go forward with the condemnation or whatever their pleasure is at that point, but it's up to them."

Albright said Thursday that PRD has not requested any permits or asked for any extensions from the city.

If the board condemns the buildings at its March 17 meeting, Albright said the city is under no obligation to take further action, but will have "made the declaration that something needs to happen," and can take further action if necessary.

City Manager David Watkins said the Majestic Hotel fire has had a positive influence in the downtown area in that it became a rallying cry in dealing with some of the general neglect found in some of the historic structures in the downtown area.

Although the Thermal Basin Fire District had already been created to deal with unsafe structures downtown, Watkins said the fire "gave it the horsepower that was needed in the community to persuade, or work with, property owners to prevent a similar type tragedy from happening in the future."

"I think if you count the number of buildings that have been bought, sold or refurbished in the relatively short time since the fire a year ago, it's really quite remarkable. I think it pushed the realization that Hot Springs can no longer just ignore the 800-pound elephant in the room and codes had to be adopted and enforced to prevent a similar tragedy," he said.

Watkins said the rubble pile is also a constant reminder of what happens when owners don't take care of a piece of property.

"I think the process has been very long, but I think given the magnitude of that structure and the cost to remove not only the rubble, but the other hazardous materials, it warrants a pretty long process," he said.

Watkins also said it "is pretty obvious" that the debris cleanup will not occur by March 5.

"I think by the end of next week, we'll have a better handle on what the next year will bring. I'm optimistic that something will happen on that site. A lot of times there are things going on in the community you can't talk about, and I think there is a lot of concern about making sure that major entryway into downtown not only gets cleaned up, but also redeveloped," he said.

In reference to a statement he made March 4, 2014, that the rubble would not remain piled up for six or eight months, Watkins said Thursday, "I thought at the time that the property owner would be more conducive to working with us and he has dragged things out. A year ago, I thought it (the rubble) would be gone by now. I was also expecting him to work with us and he obviously didn't."

He said the city's only recourse was to either condemn the buildings and continue to fine the owner to make him make it safe or use eminent domain, in which case the city would have to buy the property and then clean it up.

"Right now, our strategy is to continue working with our partners and keep putting pressure on him to either clean it up or get out," Watkins said.

Watkins said the city will continue to write citations for the existing violations and moving the condemnation forward.

Jim Fram, president and CEO of The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, said that on a positive note the Majestic Hotel fire was a "tremendous wake-up call to not only people in the community to get involved and engaged in the downtown, but some of the regional and nationwide media stirred interest among developers."

"Still today, we're enjoying pretty aggressive groups of developers and investors coming in on just about a weekly basis to look at property and opportunities downtown. They are looking at everything from one end of Central to the other," he said.

On the negative side, Fram said it is "obvious the pile of bricks is still there, but you have some state and federal agencies involved, and unfortunately they don't move at a very high rate of speed. I've had several conversations with the guy who owns the property, and in addition to some challenges and cleaning up and getting it prepared for development, I think he's been stymied a little bit by bureaucracy."

Fram said the last he heard the owners of the Majestic property were working on some financial issues to get the funding to do the cleanup.

"I've also had a couple of conversations with state agencies in regard to doing due diligence and following up on his funding," he said.

Fram said he doesn't know what alternatives ADEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency have, "but I'm sure that things will start falling into place that aren't real positive for him (the property owner)."

"But it has garnered us a lot of attention with real estate and commercial developers basically from coast to coast," he said.

Local on 02/27/2015

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