City settles lawsuit and takes ownership of hollowed-out Hotel Marysville. What’s next?

The city of Marysville has taken ownership of Hotel Marysville, the fire-damaged landmark looming over and clogging traffic downtown, after settling a lawsuit against hotel owners.

City officials reached a deal, announced publicly Thursday, agreeing to take ownership of the hotel property plus $700,000 from the Feather River Plaza LLC, ending a lawsuit they filed last month seeking $5 million in damages for the nearly five-month saga that ensued after the building caught fire June 15.

Earlier this week, the city announced that it planned by January to reopen closed lanes on Highway 70, which runs alongside the hotel and has had northbound lanes closed since the fire.

The city had sought to knock down the top floor of the hotel to then reopen the blocked off lanes below, and wanted to partner with Yuba County and Yuba Water Agency to split the cost of the project, which was estimated to cost $700,000 to $840,000.

The city still plans to have Highway 70 reopened in January, said Mayor Chris Branscum, but with a settlement reached and title to the property in hand, it will decide in the near future what to do with the hotel site.

The deal’s timing allowed the city to apply for an EPA grant, which if approved would be awarded in the spring and go toward the demolish and cleanup costs of the hotel site, Branscum said.

The hotel had various safety issues stemming from the fire, including possible asbestos and questions about its structural stability.

The city plans to clear the hotel site for new development and has different paths to doing that, Branscum said, the timing of which may depend on the EPA grant cycle.

Past estimates of demolishing the hotel were in the neighborhood of $3 million.