City waits for word on Days Inn's future
By Anessa Myers
Published in News on December 11, 2007 2:13 PM
More than three months after winds damaged the Days Inn on Wayne Memorial Drive, the company that owns the structure says it still does not know what the next step will be for the motel.
City officials say Daley Investments Inc. has only a couple more weeks to decide before its building will be condemed.
Shreds of walls, strips of roofing and remnants of rooms are still visible at the site, which was ripped apart by swirling high winds in late summer.
Some of the damaged materials and room furnishings have been cleared out of the motel, and the sign was taken down Monday afternoon, but there is no official decision from Daley Investments president H. Mark Daley III about the building's fate.
The company is expected to make a decision on the property by the first of the year.
Lynn Stokke, Daley's secretary, said Daley had meetings with his insurance company and several engineers last week and will continue to do so this week to discuss the future of the motel.
But Daley wanted one more engineering plan before making the decision to either start from scratch or to just rebuild the part of the structure that was damaged.
Chief Building Inspector Ed Cianfarra said he is hoping Daley does make a decision soon or else he will have to go to the City Council to condemn the structure.
Cianfarra said he also had a meeting with Daley about the building, explaining what would be required if the structure was to be rebuilt from the base that is already there, as well as what would be required if the owners decided to demolish the existing building and build it from the ground up.
Cianfarra said he feels the owners were swayed more one way than the other based on what he told them.
But he wouldn't say what he believed Daley's company would do.
"They did not make clear to myself or my staff that day what their decision would be," he said.
But he did say, "You notice they are stripping it."
The city has been waiting long enough for Daley to decide what to do, Cianfarra said.
"If I'm not told by the first council meeting in January what they are going to do, at the second council meeting, I will be bringing it to the council for condemnation," he said.
He said he has tried to work with the owners, but feels their time is up.
"I'm done," he said. "I'm done."