Elks Shelve Plan to Build Hotel on Old Lodge Site

The Glendale Elks and a local developer have scrapped plans to build a five-story hotel and new clubhouse on the site of the historic Elks Lodge, destroyed by an arson fire six years ago, an Elks official said.

P. Dennis Keenan blamed poor economic conditions for the decision not to build. But he said the developer and lodge officials are still considering building a scaled-down, commercial-retail project on the site.

The Howard-Platz Group of Glendale agreed a year ago to build the project, but has failed to pay $15,000 a month in rent to the Elks that was to begin last April, said Keenan, who is legal adviser to the Elks. An extension granted until Jan. 1 also passed without payment, he said.

Representatives of Howard-Platz did not return calls from The Times. Several suits have been filed against the company in the last year for non-payment of debts and leases on other properties.

The developer had promised to begin construction by last May 1 on a 162-room, business-class hotel on the site of the former lodge at 120 E. Colorado St. A business hotel offers mid-priced rooms and generally does not provide convention facilities and other luxury accommodations of a first-class hotel, such as the Red Lion Inn that is under construction in Glendale.

The Howard-Platz project also would have included construction of a new, three-story Elks lodge, facing Elk Street.

Keenan said the developer could not get financing. He said economic conditions are particularly bad for new hotel construction. “The market conditions that have caught the developer are very real conditions,” Keenan said. “We still think highly of Howard-Platz and would like to do business with them.”

Developers several years ago had proposed building a four-story office building, instead of a hotel, on the site. However, economic surveys at the time indicated a need for more hotel accommodations, rather than offices. The hotel was to have been a franchise of the Phoenix-based Compri chain.

Although the developer has defaulted on more than $100,000 in lease payments, Keenan said the club has taken no formal action to terminate the development agreement. Club officials still hope that financing will be found for some project in partnership with Howard-Platz, possibly an office building or a combined commercial-retail development, he said. No definite plans have been made.

Lodge members have been meeting in rented quarters in Pasadena since the Glendale lodge, which was built in 1917 and listed on the city’s roster of historic places, burned on Jan. 19, 1986. The blaze was blamed on arson, but no arrests were made. Arson investigators said in 1986 that Elks members were not suspected in the fire.

Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided that an insurance carrier owes the lodge $1.7 million. The Elks suit was filed almost six years ago.

First State Insurance Co. of Boston had paid only $212,000 on the club’s claim, even though the lodge carried a $2-million fire insurance policy. Before the fire, the Elks had announced plans to demolish the old lodge. The insurance company argued in court that the old building, therefore, was practically worthless.

Elks attorneys are seeking six years of interest and repayment of legal fees, which could boost the $1.7-million judgment to almost $3 million. A new trial is pending on charges that the carrier acted maliciously by not paying the money. The Elks also are asking for more than $4 million in punitive damages against the insurance company.

Keenan said the insurance money could be used to develop the lodge site.

The delay in resolving the insurance lawsuit has prevented the Elks from doing anything with their property, which is located within three blocks of the Glendale Galleria. Neighbors had complained for years that the charred shell of the building was an eyesore. The remnants were finally removed in December, 1990.

Just months before the fire, some members of the 124-year-old fraternal organization had complained that the dilapidated old lodge was too large and too expensive for the club’s dwindling membership to maintain.

The Elks in 1985 had sought to have the lodge removed from the city’s list of historic places so they could demolish the building and sell a portion of the site to raise money to build a new, smaller lodge on the rear of the lot.

Members of the Glendale Historical Society and other activists fought to save the building.

The cost of renovating the three-story brick building was estimated at more than $1 million, while operating revenues from membership dues had declined steadily. Membership had dropped from a peak of 1,900 more than 20 years ago to about 740 in 1985, when plans were announced to tear down the old building.

The demolition plans widely split the membership, and about 20% withheld paying dues in protest, further sapping the lodge’s resources, according to news reports at the time.

The top two floors of the building, which had bachelor rooms and offices, had been unoccupied for almost 40 years because of faulty wiring and plumbing. Much of the ground floor and basement area did not meet city safety standards.

The lodge had a 750-seat meeting hall--one of the largest of any Elks facility in the nation--a separate auditorium, two dining rooms, two kitchens, a gymnasium, two taverns, an indoor shooting range and an emergency shelter. The facilities were often rented by local organizations and for wedding receptions. Bingo games were a popular feature.