Guests were turned away from the Brunswick Hotel on Wednesday by order of the City Bureau of Fire. Yellow signs were posted by the City Bureau of Code Compliance and Inspections on doors and windows announcing:

“NOTICE! THIS STRUCTURE IS UNSAFE AND ITS OCCUPANCY HAS BEEN PROHIBITED BY THE CODE OFFICIAL.”

According to Brunswick managing partner Hamid Zahedi, the Fire Department notified the Brunswick “out of blue” that they would have to close down due to fire code violations. According to Zahedi, the contractors he had hired to implement the City’s requirements were originally told by the City that they had until the end of June complete their work. This was not at all feasible, so one of Zahedi’s contractors spoke with City officials and allegedly received an extension until September.

If so, that verbal commitment went out the window today.

The Brunswick had recently completed the refurbishment of 136 rooms which they felt was an adequate number to serve current demand.

Zahedi expressed particular concern for the thirty employees who were suddenly out of work.

A veteran builder/properties manager expressed surprise that the hotel was suddenly shut down. He said that either a violation was of such danger that closing would be required immediately and not delayed a month, or, if there was no immediate endangerment, an order to close down would be issued only if reasonable efforts were not being made to correct violations.

NewsLanc will contact Fire Officials on Thursday and report further on the matter.

A prominent critic of local leadership and government offered his own theory: “Yes Yes. isn’t that handy? Why not shut down the PSP’s competition! Are they trying to say this all of a sudden was a problem? Must be nice to have friends in power, isn’t it, Dale [High]?”