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twitterHistoric Boulder Dam Hotel out of money, shutting down
Mona Sheild Payne / Special to the Sun
The historic Boulder Dam Hotel, a part of Boulder City since 1933, is out of money and will close Saturday until further notice. The hotel needs to raise $250,000 to reopen.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
Boulder Dam Hotel
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Beyond the Sun
The historic Boulder Dam Hotel, which since 1933 has been home to celebrities, royalty and bums, will close Saturday until further notice.
The board of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association, which owns the hotel, restaurant and Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum at the site, voted Wednesday night to close the operation because it has run out of money.
At the same meeting, board President Bill Ferrence resigned effective Saturday. Ferrence is also manager of the Boulder Dam Credit Union, which holds two mortgages on the hotel of $940,000.
The hotel opened in 1933, while Hoover Dam was still under construction.
During its heyday in the 1930s and ’40s, it hosted Shirley Temple, the Maharajah of Indore, India, and Cornelius Vanderbilt and his new bride.
In the 1970s, after decades of neglect, it became a flophouse, then had several owners try but fail to restore it.
The Boulder Dam Hotel Association was formed in 1993 to raise money to renovate the hotel, which reopened in 2003. The historical association became sole owner in 2005.
The board, in a statement, said if it is able to raise $250,000 by Sept. 10, it will be able to reopen the hotel.
The decision to close came after the historical association failed in an appeal to the city’s Redevelopment Agency on Monday for a $135,000 cash infusion that would have kept the hotel, restaurant and museum afloat through next June. The measure, which was changed to a $40,000 loan to start, failed on a 2-2 vote of the City Council, which doubles as the RDA board.
Mayor Roger Tobler and Councilman Cam Walker supported the measure. Councilman Travis Chandler and Councilwoman Linda Strickland opposed it.
Councilman Duncan McCoy, who supported the plan, was advised to abstain because of his past involvement as a member of the association’s board.
The board statement said that because of lost revenue from bookings that would have to be canceled, the cost of reopening will be greater than that of keeping the hotel open.
The hotel’s 23 employees will be laid off after their shifts Saturday, which is the end of a pay period, new President Darryl Martin said.
Roseanne Shoaff, who manages the hotel with her husband, Roger, will stay on at a reduced rate to help close the books, Martin said. The Shoaffs, who live in an apartment at the hotel, will have to move, he said.
The Boulder City Art Guild Gallery and other stores and tenants in the hotel will be given 30 days to move, he said. The hotel building will remain open to allow customers access to those businesses.
No hotel guests were booked for Saturday night, said board member Val Olsen, who is an employee of the Boulder City News. The museum’s archive, which is kept in the basement, will stay there for now.
Former museum curator Dennis McBride, who now is a collections specialist for the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas, spoke to the board before its decision, offering the state museum’s resources and help.
He noted that the state museum is moving into a new, 78,000-square-foot building.
“If you are looking for direct gifts, nobody has any money,” McBride said. “But we still have resources you do not. It will take creative thought and effort on both sides.”
The association board will meet next week to begin discussing what to do with the archive, Martin said.
The board plans to apply to the Credit Union for a loan modification, he said. He noted the difficulty of Ferrence’s position as manager of the Credit Union holding the hotel’s loans, which prompted his resignation.
“Bill Ferrence has worked so hard to get the hotel where it is headed. He and his wife, Cheryl, have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it,” he said.
Olsen and fellow board member Bret Runion, who provided the board’s statement to the media, said the board would appeal to the community to keep the hotel open.
“We know from past experience that the people of Boulder City have stepped up,” Runion said. “We have put out an image of success for so long, it appeared we were doing so well that we didn’t need help.”
They noted that the hotel was purchased and renovated primarily to house the museum and archive, which had previously occupied the back of a store.
“We’ve invested $3 million in this structure,” Runion said. “The community has stepped up in the past and will continue to do so.”
CORRECTION: This story was updated to reflect the proposed RDA assistance. | (July 9, 2009)
Discussion: 19 comments so far…
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The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
See 'er Latter! HA HA HA! Homeless veterans sleeping under bridges and all those empty rooms. INSANE & EVIL at the same time.
23 Staff members for a cheesy hotel with 20 rooms remodeled to look like an INSANE ASYLUM INSTITUTION. My sister and her husband run a 58 room successful hotel on the Oregon Coast with a total staff of 6. I'd like to see how many comped rooms are given out to Board Members and their friends, while PANHANDLING to this public for more FREE money! Looks like the BUMS are still living there and never left! Get rid of the Board of Directors, Marketing & Technology & Sales & Preservation & History & Human Resources & Housekeeping & Maintenance Managers, my sister does all that herself & manages the hotel with NO PROBLEMS.
One more thing....My sister whips-up one heck of a breakfast for the guest every morning, some say the best on the coast, all by herself!
rejco100 -- does reality mean anything to you? It's clear there's no money to keep the doors open.
Point taken about the homeless vets, though -- when one digs into the alternate reality that is the VA (and mosts government agencies) it is utterly shameful. One needs to be familiar with Kafka to understand it. And that's nothing new. Anyone remember the Bonus Army? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
Your sister sounds like a saint. Maybe she should hire on and run this hotel and see how well she fares - business - it's either there or it isn't.
I think perhaps rejco100 sister is so far off the chart that she is already in heaven or perhaps in the place of the dead where there is a large workforce. It is easy to criticize this situation. The world is a changing place. Myself, I expect to have to leave in the next few years because there will be no water in Vegas. Then we shall see how rejco100 and others do! Maybe they can take out a rod and strike a rock and walla - lots of water and gold and other wonderful things.
Let it go. If there's not enough business to keep it open, capitalism says it should close. Let the rich people of Boulder City buy the place and keep it open if it means so much to them. Don't expect me to contribute, I'm too busy paying my own bills.
So Chandler and Srickland, what are your reasons for voting against the funding?
Its really to bad. I actually do hate to see this. I think the board running the Hotel are good people, but no experience in the Hospitality industry. I actually feel bad for the people that put their hearts and soles into this place. I really don't think anything weird was going on here. Its funny when times are good you can get away with sort of loose running of things, then things get tight and these problems surface like a bear coming out of hibernation. A small 20 room hotel with 23 employees, well its to much. The Debt service is high, but leases should of been kept to off set your fixed overhead. Huge mistake taking over the restaurant and bar. A couple should have been able to do almost everything in this Hotel, including front desk, clean rooms (especially with only 10 rooms being occupied most of the time. One maid can clean all the rooms, one part time additional for when busy and extra cleaning. Management of utilities, is very important in a old Hotel. Unused rooms should be shut down and not air conditioned . Thermostat raised in public areas. Sorry doesn't need to be lite up like a church at night. I'll bet there is a lot of fat in this. I wonder if a costs of room verses revenue report, was ever done. In other words how much do you need a night to cover the rent. Frankly I doubt it. I'll bet there is fat all over the place on this place. Finally I think a lot of people would volunteer to help with maintenance and up keep on this place, if they were just asked. I suspect this place will get bailed out, and whoever does it hopefully not the City, asks all the right questions first and is able to better run it.
why dont they turn it into senior living or a shelter for unwed mothers; let the bank eat the mortgage and take the tax loss. it will keep some of the workers employed anyway.
I grew up in B.C. I have stayed at the hotel..so I have one question. Why in the _____ did the city council not give them any money....oh that's right they want to add restrooms downtown.Give me a break, just another SAD day in "Clean Green Boulder City"
.
..
...Coast to Coast and border to border, another one bites the dust, I've lived in a dozen states and it always hurts to return to a town or city and see an empty lot where a favorite restaurant, bar or hotel once was.
...From my hometown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Bobby Troup wrote the classic "Route Sixty Six", probably recorded by more singers than any other American song. I've driven the Atlantic to the Pacific six times and love Interstate travel.
...One thing is sure if you don't see the great panoramic view of America sometimes Interstate travels can get pretty boring. Eisenhower's highway projects killed inner cities and historic
downtowns as businesses and citizens fled to the surburbs.
...It would be nice to see that hotel school at UNLV pick that Boulder City Hotel as a project and see if they can refine it as profitable entity compatible to the surrounding historical area.
yeah - how about for some under the bridge people to live in?? Or the poor people that live in the park with their shopping carts???
dont stay at the suites on boulder hwy - they say that there are pullout beds ?? no pull out beds - maybe this place has some???
vegas is recession proof, right?
Steve Wynn should look in his sofa cushions and get the $250K and send one his bellhops down there to run it.
I do agree with rejco100 that such a small property is overstaffed (I am an HR manager for a large hotel and have been a manager in the industry for 11 years now and know what it takes to run a successful property.) but it's also the mentality of a non-profit that spurred a lackluster renovation and poorly managed business. If a saavy hotel company were to buy the property and staff it with a GM, four housekeepers, 8 restaurant staff, and a great salesperson, it could turn a profit within a year simply by marketing to tour bus companies. A more historical renovation or one to elevate the look of the property would be needed to make it a successful destination.
True, it's a bad economy and probably a bad location, but I'm willing to bet that looking at the history of marketing by the owners, it's probably a very poor attempt to keep the hotel open through doing good business.
If I had the money to buy this property, it'd be a very simple task to make it work--given the fact that I have done so in the past. Simply giving the current owners more money would be a sure way to have them back begging for more in a few years.
I agree, very poorly run and over staffed, no doubt about it. A hand out to the current group would guarantee a future handout in a year or so. Wish I had the money would love to own it, and I would be happy just paying the over head, not me.
Our family business desperately needs cash, the business has been open for over 50 years. Can we apply for a bailout from the city council? Probably not, and even if we could, we wouldn't. ALL THAT RDA money comes from customers pockets...it comes from taxes...do the business owners pay it, or do they make up for it in what they charge the customers? Most business owners can't afford the taxes, so of course we adjust our prices accordingly.