City of Marysville gets ownership of Hotel Marysville, $700K after settling lawsuit
MARYSVILLE – After a fire in June devastated the Hotel Marysville, it still sits in the middle of the historic downtown blocking part of Highway 70, which runs through the city.
But the mayor of Marysville says it won't stay that way for much longer. The lawsuit filed against the hotel owners was settled Thursday and now the city owns the building.
"Knock it down or open it up so we can go through again," said Jennie Willis, a Yuba County resident.
It's a sentiment shared by many in Yuba County. The aftermath of the Hotel Marysville fire has been blocking traffic since June.
"If you go the backway, it takes hours. If you go this way you have stop and go, stop and go," she said.
The City of Marysville sued the underlying owners of the hotel last month. On Thursday, they came to an agreement.
"Today is a significant day in, certainly, recent Marysville history and then the history of the hotel Marysville, which has been a fixture of Marysville for a hundred years," said Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum.
Instead of dragging out litigation to potentially get the $5 million they sued for, the city settled by becoming the new owner of the building. They will also be receiving $700,000 from the original owners to go toward demolition.
"There's community pressure, and it's the larger community. It's not just Marysville, but everyone who transits, businesses in Marysville and what have you," Branscum said.
"How do we minimize the cost and yet, open up the highway?" said Marysville City Manager Jim Schaad.
Their next task is figuring out how they're going to demolish the building. They're deciding whether to knock the entire building down or only knock down the top floor. Either option will still open up Highway 70 in January, they say.
They're also worried about toxic debris.
"It would be asbestos-contaminated, so when you knock the entire building down and don't remove the asbestos first, the entire building is treated as asbestos-contaminated," said Schaad.
"there's a bias right now to probably the whole thing, [the building], but we're not firmly committed. There's still some risk analysis going on," Branscum said.
They will be discussing demolition options at their next city council meeting.
CBS13 reached out to the hotel's original owners but didn't hear back.
The City of Marysville is also hoping for a federal grant from the environmental protection agency that would help reduce the cost of demolition. The $700,000 from the original owners will not cover the cost, the city says.