Landmark lurch: Construction on hotel grinding to a halt?

On the morning of Tuesday, January 13, a skid steer loader fills in a hole with gravel, prepping the site for an abandonment that will allegedly last 60 days.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

 

If and when the Landmark Hotel gets completed, it will look something like this– nine stories of luxurious lodging towering over the Downtown Mall. 
ILLUSTRATION BY NBJ ARCHITECTS

Two sources tell the Hook that over 100 workers have been furloughed as construction on the luxury Landmark Hotel would come to a halt and the site may remain dormant for 60 days.

"The only work we're doing now," says a construction worker, who wished to remain anonymous, "is getting it to where we can just leave it for a while."

The hotel's owner Halsey Minor had not immediately returned the Hook's calls for comment at press time. His attorney on the project Steve Blaine says that, in the coming days, passers-by may see an apparent decrease in the amount of production on the site, but that this is not a shut down, but rather a chance to stop and re-evaluate the progress of the project.

"As with any project," says Blaine, "the owner is making certain he's going to deliver the project in the most financially efficient and viable way."

This, says Blaine, is not cause for alarm.

"Halsey Minor is still the owner, the contractor is still the contractor, and the bank still has a loan," says Blaine, "and they all intend to bring this project to completion."

On Thursday, January 15, a skeleton crew of workers were present on the site. A few who were there to work on the heating and air system said they were only there to load equipment into a truck to be taken away for a time, while the job remains unfinished. 

A four-man concrete pouring crew say they are a week away from completing their portion, and planned to come back to work toward finishing.

Indeed, on the morning of Monday, January 21, the only workers at the Landmark were those laying concrete, and the only vehicle a cement mixer.

Not that anyone looking online for news of the hotel's progress would know there was any construction at all. On the Landmark Hotel's official blog, there has not been a new update since October 16, 2008, when workers installed framing and piping.  

This is but the most recent of delays for the project. In November, Silverton Bank withheld its loan money on the project, though the reason was publicly disputed between owner and lender. The following month, owner Minor ousted developer Lee Danielson as the project's developer.

Nevertheless, the website for the Landmark Hotel, or as it is officially known, "Landmark: The Hotel," still promises it is "Coming Summer 2009."

–A previous version of this story appeared in the Thursday, January 15, issue.

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