Red Lion closed while engineers evaluate building’s support structure
Monday, December 07, 2009 11:59 AM (pst)
The Astoria Red Lion Inn will be closed indefinitely while engineers evaluate the building’s structural support system, hotel officials announced Dec. 4.
The action follows on the heels of an incident Nov. 5 in which a balcony connected to one of the hotel’s riverside rooms collapsed sending six people plummeting into the Columbia River. None of the six, who landed in a mooring basin, were reported injured. Although they were dunked into the chilly waters up to their chests, all managed to swim to safety.
Initial reports focused on the deck’s wood support as the apparent cause of the accident.
Patricia Stryker, a consultant for Red Lion Inn, told Coast River Business Journal that after receiving a preliminary engineering report of the building’s support structure hotel management decided to close the hotel on Dec. 3. At the time, the hotel had 29 guests registered. The hotel was able to find alternative accommodations for all of its guests, she said.
In addition, the closure resulted in the indefinite furlough of 24 employees, she said. All will receive severance packages, she added.
Stryker told CRBJ the hotel will be closed at least until March 2010, when an engineering evaluation on the structure’s support system is expected to be completed. However, she added that the extent of the closure could be longer, depending on what actions the engineers recommend.
“We don’t know how extensive the repairs might be,” Stryker said. “We will be closed until we make that determination.”
By March, she said hotel officials should have enough information to make a decision on how to proceed with any necessary repairs.
“March is not a target date to reopen,” she said. However, she emphasized that the company “certainly intends to reopen” once all building issues are resolved.
She said the hotel has been working closely with the City of Astoria, which has authority over determining the building’s structural soundness, and the Port of Astoria, which owns the land on which the hotel is built.
Following the Nov. 5 incident, the hotel closed all rooms overlooking the river and an engineer was hired to perform a preliminary evaluation of the building’s pier supports. That report was completed about mid-November, and was turned over to the city’s building inspector for analysis, she said.
Due to concerns over structural issues, the hotel also decided to close a number of rooms connected to an adjacent restaurant, which previously was shuttered, Stryker said.
At the time of the lodging facility’s closure on Thursday, the 124-room hotel, which is located at 400 Industry St., had only about 40 rooms available for guests, she said.
-Greg Cohen