The June 17 District Court trial date set for Majestic Hotel owner Gary Hassenflu has been reset for Wednesday, June 24 at 9 a.m. in the Garland County Courts Building, 607 Ouachita. The original court date was set for March 15, 2015.
On June 24, one of the District Court division judges will hear the case involving six building code citations from the City of Hot Springs for violations related to the “red brick” and Lanai Towers buildings as well as the “yellow brick” building, largely reduced to rubble, that are part of the Majestic Hotel multi-building complex. The “red brick” section, an eight-story structure, was built in 1925, and the Lanai Tower was constructed in 1962. The buildings are adjacent to the older “yellow brick” portion, constructed in 1886, which succumbed to fire on February 27, 2014 and was formally condemned by the Board of Directors on March 18, 2014.
The six violations listed in the Arkansas Arrest/Disposition Report (ADR), all related to Hot Springs Ordinance 5989 (International Building Code Section 116), include 1) Unsecured and vacant structure (many openings in the structure); 2) Unsafe conditions (building material such as brick and plaster are loose and falling); 3) unsanitary conditions around the rubble area; 4) Inadequate maintenance of the structure; 5) Unsafe conditions on a public sidewalk; and 6) Open to the elements by means of many broken windows.
A new court date of July 13 for Mr. Hassenflu has just been set for four ADR’s documenting an additional 401 counts pertaining to 13 fire code violations submitted by the Hot Springs Fire Department.
Hassenflu, through his Kansas-based company, of Park Properties, LLC, has owned the Majestic Hotel complex since 2012. He pled no contest to 10 of 34 counts of building code violations in December 2014.