The shuttered El Cid hotel, on 6th Street and Bridger Avenue, is seen Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | 2 a.m.
The deteriorating building is boarded-up and vacant. A few holes are visible in the windows. The exterior is nothing but dirt and wild grass.
In response to these conditions, the city of Las Vegas declared the abandoned El Cid Hotel on South 6th Street to be an imminent hazard late last month and announced that the building would be demolished by July.
The declaration was a long time coming, as the empty building and other properties on a 2.33-acre block bounded by 6th and 7th streets and Carson and Bridger avenues have been vacant for years, creating public nuisances and drawing squatters and vandals.
Consisting of now-vacant office space, residential properties, the El Cid, a hostel and empty lots, the block is owned by Jeffrey and Sophie Lau of San Francisco. Their 11 properties are listed under their names or their investment companies, Good Earth Enterprises and Lig Land Development.
Code Enforcement Supervisor Vicki Ozuna said that throughout her 22-year career with Las Vegas, few properties have been as problematic as those owned by the Laus and their companies.
“According to what I’ve been told by contractors, almost every single one of their buildings has people [squatters] in it right now,” Ozuna said.
Vandalism and code enforcement violations at the properties have occurred since 2006, when the Laus were ordered by the City Council to “remove or paint over graffiti on any building, wall, fence or other structure allowed to remain for more than 24 hours,” according to documents from the Clark County Assessors’ Office.
Problems intensified again in 2015, when the city informed the owners of the El Cid that their property was a public nuisance and in violation of city ordinances because it was not securely boarded up. In January 2016, the city recorded the same violations, this time with a more strongly worded description: “The present condition of the structure is an attractive nuisance to children and a harbor for vagrants and criminal activity.”
Contaminated with combustible items, refuse and asbestos, the El Cid has caused more problems than the other properties, especially in the last year, leading the city to declare the vacant building and an adjacent annex “imminent hazards.” It was the second declaration of this kind in Las Vegas in at least 22 years, according to Ozuna.
“Good Earth Enterprises have not been responsive to previous enforcement action and have a history of just doing the minimum to secure the property, but they do not secure to city of Las Vegas standards,” Ozuna said.
The breaking point for Ozuna and City Manager Scott Adams was two fires that took place in the El Cid in November and December. In both instances, squatters were rescued from the burning buildings, and some first responders were injured during the fire in December. In addition, Metro received 105 calls for service to the abandoned El Cid between October 2018 and Feb. 14 of this year.
Tim Szymanski, public information officer for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, said that the squatters, many of whom are believed to be homeless, most likely inadvertently caused the recent fires by attempting to keep warm or cook food inside. In situations like these, squatters and vagrants often return to the properties shortly after being forced to evacuate, restarting the dangerous cycle.
“In some cases, we’ve watched 15 minutes after we leave the scene, and they’re over there ripping the boards off and going into the building again,” Szymanski said.
While first responders make an effort to re-secure buildings after a fire, it is ultimately up to the property owners, Szymanski said, to take responsibility for the buildings long-term.
“We did our due diligence by boarding it up. There’s not anything else we can do,” he said.
In addition to the recent fires at the El Cid, Las Vegas firefighters responded to a fire at another property on the block, also owned by the Laus, on Feb. 22. That building showed signs of squatters as well, but the city has not determined that the safety risks there rise to the level of imminent hazard.
Timothy Elson, a Las Vegas-based lawyer who represents the Laus, said that the Laus agree that the El Cid should be demolished. He also said that the owners have been looking into bids for asbestos abatement and demolition for the building.
“We are moving forward with a solution,” he said at the Feb. 20 City Council meeting.
The Laus also have plans to demolish “five or six buildings” on the block, Elson said, but the process will take at least four months, as asbestos must first be removed.
Nonetheless, the city plans to move forward with its own demolition timeline for the El Cid and annex, as officials are not convinced that the Laus will follow through on their promises. The city will charge the Laus for demolition costs, which will not exceed $500,000.
While the city has already expended funds to respond to issues at the El Cid and other Lau properties — including $18,698 associated with the December fire and aftermath — Ozuna said that there are avenues for recovering costs, such as charging civil penalties for violations.
“In the end, the city recoups a lot of our costs against the property owner,” she said.
So what’s next for the problematic downtown parcels? The Laus did not respond to phone calls, so it is not clear if they still plan to demolish their other properties or attempt to sell them.
However, the owners did put all their parcels up for sale in 2014. At that time, the real estate company Colliers International described the block as “one of the last remaining downtown properties on the market.”
Chris Connell, a vice president with Colliers who wasn’t directly involved in the attempted sale of the properties, said the block is “ripe for redevelopment.” Even though it contains no valuable properties that could be refurbished or redeveloped, Connell said the land value in the neighborhood south of Container Park alone is enough to make the properties a hot real estate item if they ever go back on the market.
“It’s just a matter of somebody coming in and having the stones and the money to do it,” Connell said.
