Hotel Marysville demolition begins. Here’s how it paves the way for Highway 70 to reopen

The first bricks have fallen from the highest floor of the historic Hotel Marysville and work is underway for its complete demolition scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Marysville officials hope that in knocking down the fire-damaged landmark, the northbound lanes of Highway 70 will reopen by sometime in January, roughly six months after the June 15 fire that destroyed the hotel and sparked a legal battle with the property owners.

The city contracted J&M Environmental Inc., from Granite Bay, to demolish the building. The demolition is the first step of the city’s plans to reopen Highway 70 and decide what to do with the cleared-out land, Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum has said.

Once knocked down, the rubble will remain in its place as the city seeks Environmental Protection Agency grant funding to pay for its removal. In the meantime, it would allow for the closed lanes to reopen and traffic to normalize in downtown Marysville.

The city took ownership of what’s left of Hotel Marysville in November after settling a lawsuit filed against The Feather River Plaza LLC, which had owned the property. The company also paid the city $700,000 to take on the building, which required costly demolition.

The city had estimated demolition to cost as much as $3 million, but Branscum has recently said that the first stage of demolition is contracted at about $800,000, with the more future costs to remove the debris, which city officials hope to find a grant to pay for.

This story was originally published December 7, 2024 at 5:00 AM.