PROVO — Next month, there will be no rooms at Provo's Travelers Inn.
Literally.
There will be plenty of space, however, for Provo's new $7 million performing arts center, thanks to a settlement between the city and inn owner Bob Patel.
Patel agreed Tuesday to vacate his motel, which will be torn down to make room for the arts center about 450 W. Center. Patel will stop renting rooms on Tuesday and leave the motel, where he lives with his wife and three children, during the first week of May.
The settlement is expected to help Provo narrowly avert a $30,000 penalty for missing a deadline to hand over the land to construction crews. The city is already in the penalty phase, Mayor Lewis Billings said, but the contractor agreed to do other work on the city's former library, which is being converted into the arts center and expanded onto motel land.
Provo sued for occupancy in March, and court proceedings would have made avoiding penalties increasingly difficult.
"The law allows Mr. Patel 90 days from the day we filed for occupancy before we could have gotten possession," Provo deputy city attorney David Dixon said. "That would have put us into June, which would have been a delay of at least another month beyond this agreement."
Terms of Tuesday's agreement were not disclosed, and it settled only the question of whether Provo would obtain the land, which the city sought to take through the power of eminent domain.
The sides still could wind up in court, with a judge or jury determining how much Provo will pay Patel. Patel seeks more than $1.25 million. Provo offered $875,000.
Patel is involved in three other motels in Utah Valley, so he won't be homeless, a condition many residents of the Travelers Inn have known. The inn is used by local relief organizations and churches that help displaced persons make transitions. That's why Patel has a week before he stops taking reservations.
"I have to take care of these people first, the city second," he said. "We'll find them another place to go. I cannot throw them out on the street."
Patel's attorney, Dayle Jeffs, filed court documents last month contesting Provo's right to seize the hotel. Utah law allows cities to use eminent domain only if they prove the land is necessary for public use.
"Provo city has no right to condemn the property at issue for an art center," Jeffs wrote in a motion filed March 22. He argued Provo bases its claim on an Arizona law and said that a February ruling by a Utah 4th District Court judge in a Mapleton case supported Patel's case.
Jeffs said Tuesday that Patel had dropped that and all other defenses because of the settlement.
Dixon and Jeffs said they will seek a resolution through some combination of mediation, arbitration or trial.
City executives were excited about the agreement, which the mayor presented to the City Council during a closed meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Provo spokeswoman Raylene Ireland said the center, originally scheduled for completion in January 2007, may open a couple of months later than that because of the delay in obtaining Patel's land.
The arts center will include a 700-seat theater, a full stage, recording studios and offices.
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com