After years of remaining vacant, a number of city code maintenance violations and a fire in March, the former Ambassador Hotel in Salina has been officially deemed unsafe and dangerous.
The building, 1616 W. Crawford St., has been ordered to be either repaired or demolished by or at the expense of the owner of the property after a resolution condemning it was passed by the Salina City Commission.
Sean Furbeck, dangerous structure specialist for the city, presented evidence to the commission during a public hearing at the commission meeting Monday, outlining the reasons for deeming the building dangerous.
What makes the Ambassador Hotel dangerous?
Furbeck said the property, which is owned by Andrea Investments LLC, has seen 23 violations of property maintenance codes since that ownership began on June 24, 2019.
He said there have multiple instances where the city has tried to secure the building from unauthorized entry, but those efforts continually fail.
"Eight violations have been abated for unsecure reasons since 2021," Furbeck said. "In the past year, when the city contractor boarded to secure the structure within 24 hours the boarding to the building was removed and the building was open again."
More recently, the Salina Fire Department responded to a fire in the building on March 12, 2024, and Furbeck said the next day it was revealed through an inspection of the property that evidence of "several criminal activities" could be found.
"To our knowledge, no repairs have been made to the structure and the city has performed all mowing of grass and weeds and all trash removal from the facility in 2024," he said.
According to Furbeck, Salina municipal code lists 11 different criteria for deeming a structure dangerous, including such reasons as neglect after damage or becoming a "harbor for vagrants, criminals or immoral persons."
"Any one of those (11) criteria warrants a dangerous structure designation," he said. "This structure meets 10 of the 11 listed criteria."
One of the biggest issues with the site has been unauthorized use as a shelter.
"For years, the owner has not kept the building secure, which has allowed extensive occupation by vagrants and provide opportunity for documented criminal activity," Furbeck said.
He said a post-fire inspection in May revealed that more than 25 locations where fires had been set inside the building and that several needles and syringes were found in abandoned rooms.
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Owner says city of Salina has been difficult to work with
Joshua Joseph, who owns the building through his company, told the Salina City Commission he purchased the property knowing it was older and in need of transition from a hotel to some other kind of business.
"I came up here and brought, to the planning session, a complete plan ... to change the property to a strip (mall) center in the front and a storage building in the back," Joseph said.
Joseph said before any of this could happen, the city made a zoning request change to the property that wouldn't allow him to make those changes.
Eventually, Joseph said he was approached by the city with a potential buyer of the property to be used as part of a larger plan to address housing in the community.
That project, which saw Salina receiving funding from the State of Kansas for housing, didn't come to fruition, with the focus moved to a new site on West Magnolia .
Joseph said he was willing to work with the city to demolish the structure but wanted the city to allow him to take all the materials from the demolition to the landfill, but according to him, the city said only a certain amount of the demolished materials would be able to be taken there.
"I have quotes from companies who are ready to demolish," Joseph said. "I was willing to demolish the hotel rooms, build a new one and redo everything, but have been given a lot of pushback by the city."
He said he was still willing to demolish most of the facility and rebuild, but has, since he purchased it in 2019, been "given the runaround" from officials about how he could do it.
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City commission officially condemns Ambassador Hotel
After listening to Furbeck and Joseph, the did approve a resolution that found the Ambassador Hotel to be unsafe and dangerous.
While the commission thanked Joseph for his cooperation and seemed sympathetic to his concerns about working with the city, ultimately the action was to look at the evidence given to them.
"(Those development) prospects went a different direction and we're here today to declare this a dangerous structure," Mayor Bill Longbine said.
With this resolution, the building will be required to be repaired or demolished by the owner. If the owner doesn't comply, the city will cause have the work done, with costs in excess of any salvage from the project to be paid for by the owner.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Salina's Ambassador Hotel deemed dangerous, ordered to be repaired or demolished
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