DULUTH — Local firefighters used the deserted and soon-to-be-leveled Edgewater Motel for training exercises Friday.
The 60-room motel at 2330 London Road has been closed since March 2020, according to Anne Stratioti, vice president of administration for ZMC Hotels Co., which owns the property.
She said the company had been weighing the viability of the two-level motel, which dates back to the 1960s, for some time. But when the pandemic struck, Stratioti said “that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The newer neighboring five-level Edgewater Hotel and Waterpark will continue to operate. And while she doesn’t have a specific timeline quite yet, Stratioti said ZMC is laying plans for a “pretty major” renovation of the remaining 161-room property in the near future. She said she could not share any cost estimates for the project.
“We have a multi-stage process for the property and the hotel and everything. And this is just the first piece — taking down this building. The next piece in that process is upgrading and doing renovations to the Edgewater Hotel and Waterpark,” she said.
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Stratioti said the hotel will continue to operate while undergoing its pending improvements.
As for the motel site, Stratioti said ZMC has no immediate plans for it after the structure is removed.
But ZMC is unlikely to let the site sit idle for long.
“We have some ideas but nothing concrete. So, temporarily we will pave it and use it for parking. And then we’ll do something more with it in the future,” Stratioti said.
ZMC Hotels is owned by an investment partnership affiliated with California-based Hall Equities Group. ZMC has a portfolio of 47 hotels across the nation operating under 20 different brand flags.
Locally, ZMC operates not only the Edgewater Hotel, but also two other properties: the Inn on Lake Superior and the Days Inn by Wyndham Duluth Lakewalk.
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