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Battle Ground Hopes Roadwork Grant Will Lead To Abandoned Hotel's Overdue Demise

Credit Charlotte Tuggle / WBAA
/
WBAA
Battle Ground Town Council President Steve Egly says the abandoned Days Inn is scaring investors away from the area.

 While many Central Indiana towns are using Community Crossings for paving projects in traffic-heavy areas, one is using the money as a stepping stone to revamp an entire section that’s become somewhat of a horror attraction.

Battle Ground Town Council president Steve Egly says the damage to Northgate Drive is environmental. But that’s not why people avoid it.

There is only one property on the several grassy lots – an abandoned Days Inn, which he says is scaring both commuters and property owners away from the area.

“We’re somewhat responsible for keeping the area secure and hoping that no one has an accident or gets injured when they’re in there,” he says. “It has a reputation of being haunted.”

The town will hold a hearing within the next few weeks to request permission to demolish the building. Egly says the disrepair inside – broken windows, black mold on the walls and grass growing in the rooms -- makes rehabilitation of the property nearly impossible.

Egly says an architect who surveyed it years ago compared one of the rooms where plants had grown through the cracked window to something in a Stephen King book.

But he says the owner still believes the hotel could be repaired.

Egly hopes to get permission to raze the dilapidated hotel. In its place, he’d like to see a destination restaurant, a fleet service center and maybe another hotel.

In a few weeks, the town will begin the process of getting a demolition order from a judge.

He says it’ll cost around $600,000 to clear the land. Where that money will come from is still unclear.

The road that branches off into a few acres of developable land will be resurfaced using some $80,000 the town received from the state’s Community Crossings grant program. 

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