Motel’s days numbered

Heart of Columbia’s owners making plans to demolish condemned building

By JOHN C. DRAKE

Staff Writer

Eight months after an errant cigarette set the building ablaze, the Heart of Columbia Motel’s owners are positioning the building for demolition.

At the same time, they are facing pressure from the city to address long-standing property code violations at the condemned building.

The 40-year-old motel, which has been closed since 1994, is now a boarded-up eyesore just across Assembly Street from the State House. It was declared unsafe and condemned May 5, one day after the fire.

Safety inspectors noted structural and water damage caused by the fire, a brick column separating from the building, and inadequate maintenance to the structure, city records show. The building was ordered demolished or repaired within 30 days.

With the building continuing to deteriorate, safety inspectors in October charged Lowell Bernstein, an attorney whose family owns the building, with failing to abate the building’s unsafe conditions, a violation of city ordinance.

On Monday, Bernstein received a continuance in Livability Court — the fourth time a ruling has been delayed.

The owners could face fines if work on the property continues to be delayed.

City leaders are eager to see the building removed, allowing for new development in its place.

The motel once was considered as a site for the convention center hotel. Bernstein said there also had been talk of renovating the building and turning it into a USC dorm before the fire.

“It is an absolutely incredible piece of property with an unbelievable potential for large-scale investment,” said Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp.

Delk said the Vista likely will need another hotel sometime in the next two years — even with the pending construction of a Hilton hotel to serve the convention center, plans for a new Main Street hotel, and renovations to several others. The Heart of Columbia Motel site would be a perfect location, he said.

“It is an unsightly property right now, and that’s unfortunate to have in the Vista, right next to all the great things that are happening,” Delk said. “I would hope that we would see a vacant piece of land there.”

The building is next door to the new site of USC’s Arnold School of Public Health, the center of the university’s plans for a sprawling research campus.

USC spokesman Russ McKinney said the university takes notice any time an adjoining property becomes available. But, he said, “we don’t have any active interest at this time in that property.”

Bernstein said he was not sure whether the Thailand Restaurant and Bar, which was on the bottom floor of the motel, would reopen at another location.

“We’re looking forward to getting (the motel) demolished,” Bernstein said. “It’s just been a slower process than I thought.”

Another hearing is scheduled for February.

The continuance the owners received Monday was needed to arrange for a report on the level of asbestos in the building. The owners cannot hire a demolition firm until that information is available, Bernstein said.

Demolition should take place by the end of spring.

The fire began early on the morning of May 4 after a homeless person dropped a lit cigarette on the second floor, fire officials said. The fire was confined to the second floor, though there was smoke and water damage to the restaurant below.

After the fire, owners boarded the building up heavily to ensure that no homeless people would seek shelter in the structurally unsound facility, Bernstein said. But that has made accessing the interior of the building for environmental studies difficult.