As two notorious Aurora Avenue North motels were demolished Friday, neighbors who wanted the demolition for years said the feeling was almost as good as Seattle winning the Super Bowl.
The former Italia and Isabella motels in the 4100 block of Aurora Avenue North had been owned by Dean and Jill Inman and were sites of frequent complaints from the group Fremont Aurora Wallingford Neighbors.
Built in 1950 when Aurora was the main Seattle highway, the motels later became known for prostitution and criminal acts and saw an increase in police calls in recent years.
As an assistant city attorney in 2009, current Seattle Municipal Judge Ed McKenna targeted those motels and other Inman properties by helping to write Seattle's chronic nuisance property law.
Between January 2008 and July 2009, the 4100 and 4200 blocks of Aurora Avenue North had 659 calls for police service. The 4200 block had the Inman-owned Fremont Inn, which was demolished in February 2012. While it was still operating in 2010, Seattle police labeled it a chronic nuisance property.
McKenna said the motels took an exceptional amount of police resources with rampant criminal activity and serious health concerns because of infrequent health inspections. Dean Inman disputed those claims in statements to reporters.
In 2009 McKenna filed dozens of tax charges against Dean Inman, his former wife and the motels as corporations.
Dean Inman eventually pleaded guilty to one count of failure to file tax returns and received a two year deferred sentence on the condition he commit no criminal law violations, and that he agree to the sale or closure of the Italia and Isabella motels.
The four motel corporations pleaded guilty in 2010 and as part of the plea agreements, the Italia and Isabella were to be sold or leased to nonprofit groups for use as low-income housing or emergency shelter.
After those motels and the nearby Fremont Inn closed, frequent squatters and graffiti vandals moved in.
Even as the wrecking crew came in this week, squatters had to be moved out.
"I am celebrating,” neighbor Linda Clifton said. “It was a dump.”
When Dean Inman stopped making payments, the motels went back into the hands of those holding the mortgage, who eventually sold them at a big loss.
“We got less than 50 percent of what we invested,” former investor Alan Ehrlich told KIRO 7.
The new property owner is Hotel Concepts US. A representative was at the site Friday and said a new hotel may go up at the site. The company is in the process of building another one nearby on Aurora.
Of the other Inman properties, the demolished Fremont Inn is now the site of a 71-unit apartment complex run by Catholic Community Services. The Seattle Motor Inn – the first of the properties to close in 2009 – remains vacant at 12245 Aurora Ave North; The Wallingford Inn at 4453 Winslow Place North remains as a motel under new ownership.
“These motels were a huge thorn in the side of the community,” McKenna told KIRO 7 Friday. “It’s fantastic the neighbors are finally going to get some relief.”
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