Judge gives Elyria Days Inn 90 days to fix list of issues or be shut down

ELYRIA — The Days Inn hotel on Lorain Boulevard has 90 days to clean up the property and meet standards for security and quality or have its doors closed for good, a Lorain County judge ruled Tuesday. After a week's worth of testimony in Lorain County Common Pleas Court, during which Judge Chris Cook heard from representatives of the city of Elyria as well as hotel ownership and employees, the judge on Tuesday set the following conditions the hotel must meet in the next 90 days to stay open for business: The minimum room rate must be $90, with a cash deposit of $50 if the guest does not have a credit card. Staff must be completely trained on how to spot human trafficking on hotel property. There must be security officers on-site 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Ownership must "significantly increase all parking lot lighting." All exterior door locks must be repaired and in working order. All adults, guests and visitors alike older than 18 must present valid photo ID upon entry. A complete ban on smoking in the facility, with the elimination of all smoking rooms. The property and/or franchise may not be sold or marketed for sale for the next 90 days without a court order. The city asked Cook for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order shutting down the hotel as a nuisance in a complaint filed May 21, citing hundreds of calls to police to respond there in the past two-and-a-half years. Ownership, doing business as Elyria Hotels Inc., filed a reply June 8 and the matter was set for a hearing before the court June 23. Cook granted a preliminary injunction against the hotel, which he then stayed for 90 days to give management time to implement his requirements. The hotel will remain open for now, with another hearing set in Cook's court Sept. 29. Elyria police officers testified last week that there are significant illegal drug problems on the property, along with illegal sex work and multiple accidental drug overdose deaths — three in a one-week span, with one each on May 7, 9 and 14, according to testimony at the hearing. Other testimony alleged that up to 20 sex workers are operating on the property at any given time, with men coming and going from their rooms paying for sexual activity. A shooting on New Year's Day injured a 20-year-old woman who was struck in the arm by a bullet, Elyria police previously reported. Elyria officers have been called to the hotel at 1825 Lorain Blvd. 670 times in the last 30 months, according to a report prepared for the court case by police Capt. William Pelko. In comparison, police have been called to the Hampton Inn & Suites at 1795 Lorain Blvd. 57 times in the past 30 months, resulting in seven arrests. The Courtyard by Marriott at 1755 Travelers Lane, which opened in August 2018, has seen 16 police calls with zero arrests. "Those numbers, to me, are striking," Cook said during testimony Tuesday. Assistant Elyria law directors Erik Breunig and Scott Strait presented evidence in the form of Pelko's report and also put Elyria police officers on the stand to describe the kinds of calls officers respond to at the six-story hotel, which was built in the mid-1960s and last sold in 2012. Hotel staff said the numbers comparison was an unfair one: Hampton and Marriott properties, they said, are in a different class of hotel than the Days Inn's "economy" hotel model, which is less expensive. But "the rates aren't so disparate to suggest that's based on rates alone," Cook noted, with the Days Inn averaging a daily rate of slightly more than $50 over the past three years. Hotel employees also said they were "surprised" the number of police responses and arrests were that high. Learning that 20 "prostitutes" could be "hanging out" at the hotel and that as many as 10 drug trafficking arrests had taken place there in the last two-and-a-half years left some of them stunned. "Those numbers are bigger than I expected," hotel operations manager Paul Torchia testified Tuesday. Asked about the fatal overdoses, he replied: "Someone dying in my hotel is a pretty damn stressful event." Hotel employees put the percentage of guests who are part of the "criminal element" at less than 1 percent of total guests. Many of those have ended up on a "Do Not Rent" list due to criminal activity, using drugs, smoking marijuana on the premises, having too many visitors in their room, public indecency or trespassing. Corporate Director Girish Patel, who oversees five Ohio and Michigan hotels in the same ownership group including properties at Cleveland Hopkins Airport and in Maumee, said the "Do Not Rent" list has grown from between 40 and 50 names in 2018, added "between 80 and 90 names" in 2019 and has already added more than 20 names this year. Patel said he was "not aware of any serious issues" at the Days Inn until he was served notice of the city's request for a temporary restraining order in May. It was a "total shock to me," he said. "We are 100 percent committed" to Elyria. In defense, he added: "Every hotel has issues. There's no business without issues." A total of 670 police calls in 30 months, however, "sounds like a lot," Patel admitted. But he and other hotel employees said that some of the police calls were for minor, noncriminal incidents: motorist assists, parking violations, personal injuries, attempted suicides. Due to its size and cost, the Days Inn has proven successful in drawing large crowds: It sold out 17 straight nights in the weeks surrounding the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016, serving mainly bus drivers because of the size of its parking lot, front desk manager Michael Torres testified. Workers on the multicounty Nexus pipeline also have stayed at the hotel, some for 30 days or more, general manager Marc Makwana testified. He also rents rooms through charitable or veterans organizations seeking temporary housing for clients, he testified. Makwana said he would not want sex workers hanging outside the hotel or working inside: The hotel is also where he and his in-laws live while he is working in the family business, he explained. Managers testified they want to work with police and the community to make the hotel a better place to stay, live and work for the more than 30 employees of the hotel. "Nobody wants to work at a hotel where people are dying," Makwana said, responding to a question about the three fatal overdoses in May. "I don't want the hotel to be shut down." The hotel's parent company has put upward of $1.5 million in upgrades to its 220 rooms in the last several years, Patel testified. That includes new granite vanities in the guest bathrooms, new paint and drywall where mold had set in and is in the process of installing new exterior locks after police pointed out that some exterior doors were unsecured after dark. The hotel has hired a private security firm as recently as two or three weeks ago to take care of issues before police have to be called, is redoing the lighting in its parking lot and investing more money in security and furnishings, employees testified. "Give us a real opportunity and we will turn this place around," Makwana asked Cook during Tuesday's hearing. Mr. D's Bar & Grille inside the hotel also is a place to meet and serves hungry long-haul truck drivers and families alike, chef/general manager Gary Bainbridge said. "You can't get better, cheaper," he told defense attorney Shawn Desai of West Bloomfield, Michigan, adding that he is comfortable encouraging his own family and friends to stay at the hotel when they're in town. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.