Renovation of a downtown hotel, which was declared a public nuisance last year, is scheduled for completion in March, a part owner says.
Work on the Hotel Plandome resumed recently after stopping in September, said part-owner Kip Paul.Paul said he and partner Robert Gerrard finished arranging a loan about 10 days ago to complete the renovation. The loan will repay about $250,000 the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency extended to Paul and Gerrard in October.
Workers are doing some demolition on the main floor and completing interior framing. Windows to finish enclosing the building have been ordered, Paul said.
When the $400,000 renovation is complete, it will contain retail space, a sandwich shop, art gallery, design office and a gift store on the main floor. Upper stories will contain offices. About 50 percent of the building already has been leased.
Gerrard and Paul bought the building in January 1988, a month after the city's Housing Advisory and Appeals Board declared the hotel a public nuisance.
The hotel, built in 1903, had been vacant since Aug. 13, 1987, after a fire burned the upper floor and roof.
The fire left upper portions of the structure's walls unsafe and in "imminent danger" of falling on pedestrians, according to a city engineer's report.
After buying the hotel, Gerrard and Paul reroofed the building last summer to secure the walls.