The Plaza Hotel probably needs to come down, but let’s be sure.
Sadly, many of the headlines across the years have been negative. We recall when the irrepressible Kemmons Wilson, founder of Holiday Inn, came to town to announce that he was building the thing. That was a fine moment in time.
But there have been any number of not-fine moments. One that sticks out was when the Pine Bluff Convention Center management blocked the door connecting the center to the hotel because the facility had been allowed to deteriorate to such a low level.
Another was when, after the hotel had been closed for a while, another manager opened it up, saying he would be more careful about who was allowed to rent the rooms.
“We are going to scan everybody,” he said. “No parties, no drugs, no prostitution.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
You know you have a problem if you have to point out that your establishment is going out of its way to bar drugs and prostitution.
So now the facade, which hasn’t been taken care of, is breaking off the side of the building to the point that one could see the inside of one of the rooms as clear as the daylight that was shining on it. (That part has a big Band-Aid over it right now.) And now we learn that there was a bad leak that has caused more damage.
The discussion came up at the Advertising and Promotion Commission meeting this week, with the head of the convention center, Joseph McCorvey saying that knowledgeable people in the hotel business have suggested that, if the city wants a hotel connected to the convention center, then the hotel should be bulldozed and a new one built. That’s because the hotel is broken down, and even if it were brought back to life, some of the design elements would be out of step with what is expected in hotels nowadays.
If this were the problem of a private individual, then that would be one thing. But the city owns the Plaza Hotel, so anything that happens to it that costs money is money out of the public’s pocket. So it behooves those in charge to get this right. And by that, we mean that the decision to stay with what’s there or go with a new structure should be based on solid numbers borne by real analysis by experienced professionals.
It would be a grand thing to see a sparkling new hotel in that space, but let’s first figure out if that’s the best route to follow before getting out the wrecking ball.