Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Hot Springs Officials Contemplate Future of Arlington Hotel

4 min read

What’s going on at the Arlington Hotel & Spa in Hot Springs, where a city inspection found a long list of unsafe and unsatisfactory conditions on June 2? (See Cited by City, Repairs Underway at Hot Springs’ Arlington Hotel.)

Urgent repairs have been made to the most pressing problems at the huge and historic hotel — electrical systems and rotten pool decking — according to city officials. And the Hot Springs contractor Hill & Cox Corp. has been hired to address more extensive structural repairs. But the selection of an engineering firm for a complete assessment of the landmark at 239 Central Ave. has not occurred, despite some confusion and reports otherwise.

At the beginning of last week, a major meeting had been scheduled for public and private interests concerned about the deterioration of the 480-room, nearly 400,000-SF building. Dwayne Pratt, executive director of the West Central Arkansas Planning & Development District, even mentioned the possibility of the hotel being sold. Within a couple of days, all of that had been scratched.

Pratt promoted the meeting as a “brainstorming session” for ideas to assist the Arlington, which was completed in November 1924 as the most elegant hotel in the state and has been a major destination ever since at the end of Bathhouse Row. The meeting, initially set for July 25 at the planning district headquarters, was to include City Manager David Frasher, the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, Hot Springs Metro Partnership, the National Park Service and Oaklawn Racing & Gaming officials, Pratt said.

But on Tuesday, a day after the meeting plans were reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, reprinting an article that had appeared in the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record, Pratt told Whispers that the gathering had been canceled. “The hotel has made progress,” he said. “As was reported, the city has indicated that the Arlington has corrected the problems, and that’s why the meeting was canceled.”

Mike Scott, the city’s chief buildings official, said in an email, however, that the city “has not signed off on the entire hotel.” He directed other questions to the management of the Arlington, which is owned by Southwest Hotels Inc., a privately held company that was led by Monty Scott until his death in January.

Bob Martorana, the hotel’s general manager who now reports to the Southwest Hotels board of directors, said the first he heard of the July 25 meeting was “when I read about it in the paper.” Hot Springs Planning & Development Director Kathy Sellman also said the meeting was news to her. On Tuesday, she wrote in an email that Pratt had not spoken to anyone in her office about it beforehand.

She said she had left a voicemail message with Pratt asking what the meeting was about. “I wasn’t involved in planning the meeting nor was I invited to attend,” Sellman said. “Mr. Pratt emailed me late yesterday [June 27] that the meeting was canceled — possibly in response to my voicemail message.”

Hazards Corrected

As to the current state of the Arlington, Sellman said, “Imminent hazards have been corrected and the city signed off on that work.”

“We took care of the initial repairs the city had asked for,” Martorana said, “and we are now in search of an engineering firm” to oversee fixes on the roof and the building’s exterior. The city’s “notice of unsafe conditions,” outlined in a June 2 letter accompanied by 44 photographs, listed electrical problems, decayed pool-deck bracing, roof leaks, cracked and falling plaster, loose tiles on the parapet, exterior cracks and rusted steel supports, among other problems.

The deck bracing was quickly fixed, and McGrew Service Co. of Hot Springs repaired exposed electrical wiring, deteriorated electrical boxes and unsecured electrical conduits, according to emails from Martorana to Scott.

Hill & Cox is working to find an engineering firm for an extensive analysis of the building, according to Martorana and Sellman.

“Let me emphasize to you that no imminent life safety hazards remain as far as we can tell,” she said. “Mr. Martorana responded quickly and cooperatively.” Martorana said that while Hill & Cox would recommend an engineering firm, he would make the choice.

As to when the selection will be made, “I can’t really answer that right now,” Martorana said. “It’s a big project. Very few firms can handle 400,000 square feet. Companies want to know they have the resources to tackle that big a project.”

And any talk about a possible hotel sale? “I don’t have any response to that,” Martorana said.

Send this to a friend