A multi-agency health inspection at the The Red Carpet Inn and Fanta Suites took place on Sept. 14. The inspection comes less than a month after the hotel’s manager died of an overdose in the building.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
The owners of a troubled Greenwood hotel have formally filed an appeal of the city’s decision to effectively close the hotel.
Late Monday afternoon, the owners of Red Carpet Inn and Fanta Suites, 1117 E. Main St., officially requested to appeal the city’s decision to revoke the hotel’s certificate of occupancy and the property vacation order before the city’s plan commission, said Kenneth Seal, building commissioner.
The owners were given 10 days to submit an appeal. The original revocation and vacation notice were delivered last week on Friday morning. The hearing is set for 10 days following the notice and is expected to take place at the commission’s next meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at Greenwood City Center.
The agenda for that meeting has not yet been released.
The hotel is allowed to remain occupied pending a decision from the commission, Mayor Mark Myers said last week.
City officials served notice to the hotel which announced the city’s intent to revoke the occupancy certificate and ordered the property to be vacated within 10 days. Officials cited the owner’s failure to bring the property into compliance with both city ordinance and state law as the reason behind the vacation order.
Concerns about the hotel have been mounting over the last several months, as police calls continued to increase at the hotel. The concerns reached a tipping point last month following news that the hotel’s manager died of an accidental overdose on the property.
During a June 24, 2021 inspection, officials from the Johnson County Health Department and the Greenwood Fire Department found a total of 188 violations, while only 32 rooms were listed as “satisfactory” throughout the entire hotel. Violations consisted of cockroaches and bedbugs, extensive damage to walls, plumbing and electrical issues, mold, water damage and more, according to copy of the notice obtained by the Daily Journal.
Officials communicated with the owner, who received a permit on Nov. 1, 2021 to repair or replace many of the items required to regain full compliance. However, during a follow-up inspection on Sept. 14 of this year, it was found that minimal progress was made to bring the property into compliance.
In fact, officials say conditions were worse.
“… In many areas it appears several violations have gotten substantially worse,” Seal wrote in the notice.
Seal then cited two sections of the Indiana Code regarding unsafe buildings and the rescission of orders, and two sections of the Greenwood Municipal Code pertaining to nuisance, vacation and unsafe buildings. The citations were used as justification to be found in violation of the law and ordinance.
All people currently occupying the property were ordered off the property by Oct. 10. Access will continue to be allowed for the owner of the property or those authorized to make required repairs or inspections, the notice says.
